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A N 8 8 D 8 B 1 AR SINCE www. NYLJ.com Volume 264—NO. 85 Friday, October 30, 2020

Admiralty Law Expert Analysis Slave : When Mutiny Matters I’ve paid my dues cook and eat them. Horrified by this Time after time and the equally distasteful prospect I’ve done my sentence of , one brave captive named But committed no … Joseph Cinque escaped his shackles But it’s been no bed of roses and freed the other captives. Using No pleasure cruise By And knives they found in the cook’s own I consider it a challenge James E. Kristin E. arsenal, the captives slaughtered the Mercante Poling before the whole human race cook and the captain. And I ain’t gonna lose Despite the mutiny, the plantation —“We are the Champions,” Africa. The unwitting passengers owners, Montes and Ruiz, continued song by Queen were then forced to board a Span- northward along the east coast of ish heading toward . the , hoping Amistad vessel sailing toward By this time, the transatlantic would be intercepted and the Afri- the United States often slave trade had already been abol- can captives would be returned to stands as a symbol of ished by the United States and Cuba as slaves. Sure enough, Amis- hope and even freedom European powers. Nonetheless, the tad was seized off Montauk, New for some asylum seekers. illegal transportation of African cap- York, by a U.S. Navy battleship, USS ForA many that arrived in this coun- tives to be traded as slaves unfor- try long ago by sea, the opposite is tunately remained on some radars. Despite the mutiny, the plan- true. Centuries old maritime cases When this ship of the enslaved tation owners, Montes and capture some events that are not so arrived in Havana, Cuba, two Span- Ruiz, continued northward seeworthy, but federal judges have ish plantation owners named Pedro along the east coast of the righted the ship. Montes and Jose Ruiz purchased 53 United States, hoping Amis- One of the most famous cases is of the African captives. They stowed tad would be intercepted and “The Amistad.” the captives onboard a 78-foot wood- en Spanish Schooner named Amis- the African captives would be Captured tad, to travel from Havana toward returned to Cuba as slaves. In February 1839, Portuguese Central Cuba, where their planta- Washington, but not with the planta- slave hunters rounded up hundreds tions were located. tion owners’ desired outcome. The of people in , Southwest Naval officers placed the captives Mutiny! in chains and brought them to fed- James E. Mercante heads the admiralty, trans- Shortly into the journey, the cook eral court in Connecticut, where portation and Marine insurance practice team at Rubin, Fiorella, Friedman & Mercante. Kristin onboard Amistad shook the captives the Naval officers sought to claim E. Poling is an associate with the firm. to the core—threatening to salt, “salvage” rights to the ship, its cargo Friday, October 30, 2020 and a salvage award to return the “life” as a factor to be considered The plantation owners’ claims captives to captivity in Spain. when rewarding salvage. Life sal- for return of the schooner Amistad vage awards are infrequently made. and the captives were based on a Salvage “If the few life salvage awards which U.S. treaty with the Spanish govern- As Judge Korman in the Eastern have been made are enough to sup- ment which, under normal circum- District once recognized: “Salvage port a generalization, it can be said stances, would require the vessel is a doctrine unique to maritime law that it is still far more profitable to and its occupants to be extradited that pre-dates the Christian era by save property than to save lives.” to Spain. The case ultimately made 900 years.” In re City of New York, See Gilmore & Black, “The Law of its way from the “Circuit Court of 534 F. Supp. 2d 370, 376 (2d Cir. Admiralty” (2d ed. 1975) at 573. the District of Connecticut, sitting 2008). To succeed, a salvage claim in Admiralty” to the U.S. Supreme Rumble in the Courts requires that the vessel be in peril, Court. (The Second Circuit was not the service rendered is voluntary, The Amistad captives were founded until June 16, 1891). For- and that the assistance is success- charged with mutiny and murder, mer President John Quincy Adams ful. See James E. Mercante, “Trea- but the federal judge in Connecticut represented the African captives as sure at Sea: Finders Are Not Always rightfully dismissed the indictments defense counsel arguing for their Keepers.” Typically, salvage applies after the horrific story and the freedom. See United States v. Libel- to property, such as saving a ves- lants and Claimants of Schnooner sel. However, many have sought to Today, the Amistad floats Amistad, 40 U.S. 518 (1841). recover an award for “life salvage.” newly constructed, secure and The U.S. Supreme Court, with an In Broere v. Two Thousand One seaworthy in its new home ... opinion authored by Justice Story, Hundred Thirty-Three Dollars, 72 F. held that the rights and liberties America. Supp. 115 (E.D.N.Y. 1947), a vessel of human beings took precedence owner sought to claim salvage rights cook’s alarming pronouncement over any treaty of another land. The after recovering a dead body at sea. was revealed. court decided that “where human There, the vessel owner recovered Two lawsuits were filed in the life and human liberty are in issue; a corpse with $2,133 in cash in his District of Connecticut following and constitute the very essence of pockets. The New York federal court dismissal. The first was brought the controversy… the treaty with held that the vessel owner was enti- by the U.S. Naval officers and Span- Spain never could have intended tled to a salvage award. The claim ish plantation owners who asserted to take away the equal rights of all was not dismissed outright because competing property claims to the foreigners, who should contest their there was no life salvaged, but the cargo and captives onboard Amis- claims before any of our courts, to money recovered from the corpse tad. A second suit was filed by the equal justice; or to deprive such for- constituted property subject to sal- captives against the Spanish plan- eigners of the protection given them vage. In Tug Dorothy J v. City of New tation owners, charging them with by other treaties, or by the general York, 749 F. Supp. 2d 50 (E.D.N.Y. kidnapping and enslavement. The law of nations.” For the same rea- 2010), the Eastern District of New Naval officers’ property rights claim sons, the Naval officers could not York awarded a tug company and was based on the law of salvage. claim any right to an award for seiz- its crew $75,000 for the comfort and Generally speaking, the Amistad, in ing the African captives. aid provided to a stranded Staten peril after having been overtaken Pack the Court Island Ferry and its stricken pas- and then rescued by the Naval offi- sengers onboard after a crash into cers (voluntary and successful), met At this time (1841), there were a concrete pier. Indeed, the 1989 the basic criteria for a salvage claim only eight Supreme Court jus- Salvage Convention includes saving by the Naval officers. tices, and one (Justice Baldwin) Friday, October 30, 2020 dissented. If the Supreme Court 562 (N.Y. 1860), which mandated the Clotilda, of filing a claim against had been split, 4-4, then the lower release of eight slaves, including six the ship, in rem, for reparations. court ruling would have remained children, brought to the Port of New However, no conflicting claim was in place. In the Amistad, because York by Virginia slave owners, Jona- filed in the federal court action. On the lower court held in favor of the than and Juliet Lemmon, who were March 30, the District of Alabama captives, the outcome would have in transit while relocating to Texas. in admiralty entered default judg- been the same. On July 26, 2019, the state of Ala- ment against “any party alleging a Not long after the Amistad, bama filed a claim to protect its claim or lien against the Unidenti- Congress passed an act in 1866 rights to the wreckage of the slave fied Shipwrecked Vessel believed that reduced the Supreme Court ship Clotilda. See State of Alabama to be Schooner Clotilda” that had to just seven justices, thereby v. The Unidentified Shipwrecked not filed a claim by the deadline. preventing democratic president Vessel believed to be the Schooner What Matters (Andrew Johnson) from appoint- Clotilda, 19-cv-423 (S.D. Ala. 2019). ing a new justice. But three years The Clotilda is the last known slave From the beginning of trade and later, Republican Ulysses S. Grant ship to travel to the United States. commerce aboard wooden sailing became president and passed a In 1860, the ship illegally carried vessels, federal courts helped right Judiciary Act, which in today’s par- 109 captives from Africa to Mobile, some serious maritime wrongs, lance, packed the court to nine, Alabama, nearly 50 years after the with decisions paving the way for where it has remained ever since. slave trade had been abolished. The landmark Supreme Court rulings From the decision of Amistad, captives were sold as slaves upon such as the Amistad. Today, the freedom was restored to Joseph arrival in Alabama. Amistad floats newly constructed, Cinque and 34 survivors of the According to the state of Ala- secure and seaworthy in its new ordeal (the others had died at sea bama’s complaint “To hide the home ... America. A stark reminder or in prison), who were repatriated evidence of their crime, the owner of its enslaved past but with a safe, to their homes in Sierra Leone. and captain of the Clotilda arranged bright and proud future. Now that’s to have the vessel towed by steam a seaworthy concept! Amistad Lives On tug up the Spanish River, following The Amistad has long been the waterway to the junction of the scrapped, but a 128-foot replica of Mobile River. At that point—at or the schooner is presently docked near Twelve Mile Island—the cap- in Long Island Sound at the Mystic tives were transferred to other ves- Seaport Museum in New Haven, sels, and the Clotilda was burned Connecticut. The new Amistad is and scuttled.” The Unidentified 10-feet larger than the 1839 version Shipwrecked Vessel believed to be to accommodate an engine room. the Schooner Clotilda, 19-cv-423 The replica, like its original, boasts (S.D. Ala. 2019). two 100-foot masts and stands as a Alabama now wants to own and reminder of the brave protest and maintain the wreck as an histori- successful uprising of Cinque and cal artifact. Alabama instituted a his fellow captives during the illegal maritime action in rem (against slave voyage. the Clotilda) seeking salvage rights Amistad paved the way for many to ownership. There was consid- Reprinted with permission from the October 30, 2020 edition of the NEW important decisions on equality, eration by the descendants of the YORK LAW JOURNAL © 2020 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. For information, such as Lemmon v. People, 20 N.Y. Africans held captive onboard contact 877-257-3382 or [email protected]. # NYLJ-10292020-465030