UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

A question of fact under the slave trade acts. Condemnation pronounced.

The claim of seamen for wages on a voyage undertaken in violation of the slave trade acts out of the proceeds of the forfeited vessel in the registry rejected.

The claims of seamen for wages and of materialmen, for supplies where the parties were innocent of all knowledge of, or participation in the illegal voyage preferred to the claim of forfeiture on the part of the government.

Materialmen have a lien which may be enforced by a proceeding in the admiralty in rem for necessaries or supplies furnished in a port to which the vessel does not belong.