Umrmo sums v. 214 BOXES OF ARMS, mo. 53
cution, yet insist that the purchase of the arms and munitions seized
on the Irwin was for the purpose of their being shipped, as a com-
mercial venture, to Jamaica, on board the Hogan. The case is the
same in its principles, and substantially the same in its evidence,
with that of The Mary N. Hogan, which was tried in the district court
‘ of the Southern district of New York in November last, and in which
there was a decree of condemnation and sale against the Hogan. The
case is reported in 18 FED. REP. 529. The evidence was so fully dis-
cussed in the opinion of Judge Baowu, delivered in that case, that
I am relieved of the necessity of a minute detail of so much of it as
goes to show the purpose and destination for which the steam-tug
Hogan was intended. I probably have a right to regard that part
of the case before me as res jucticam; but feeling disposed, in the
cases at bar, to consider the question of the character and destina-
tion of the Hogan as an original one, I have gone anxiously and
thoroughly over all the voluminous evidence before me on that sub-
ject, and find myself constrained to adopt precisely the conclusions
that were reached by Judge Baown, and are set forth in his opinion
in that case.
I Counsel for defense insist that there is no direct proof of an illegal
purpose in fitting out the Hogan. That would be an insufficient ob-
jection if the circumstances were such as to leave no other reasonable
hypothesis than that of her guilt, and if they pointed conclusively to
that fact. But there is very much direct evidence. The chief en-
gineer, Patrick Cox, and the gunner, Finton Costigan, of the Hogan,
testify positively and circumstantially that McCarthy, the master of '
the Hogan, told them that they were to fight the vessel against the
Haytian government; that she was going there for that purpose; that
a bounty of $5,000 would be divided, on reaching there, between her
four principal officers; and that they hired themselves for that ex-
press enterprise. Declarations of McCarthy to the same effect, made
to others when off his guard from liquor, were also proved. The
pretense that the Hogan was to be used in the port of Antonio to raise
the Calvert is insufiicient to overcome the circumstantial and positive
evidence sustaining the hypothesisof the prosecution, that she was
intended to be used as a gun·hoat in the waters of Hayti. The Cal-
vert cost, as she lay, $500 or £500,—the evidence seeming to be con-
fused as to the two sums,-but I suppose the true price was £500.
In order to save this £500, it is pretended that Soutar went nearly a
thousand miles to New York, and paid $11,600 for a. tug·boat to be
used for the purpose ofraising the Calvert; putting on that tug·boat
when about to sail no sort of apparatus such as salvors employ in
lifting ships from the bottom of the sea. If the raising of the Calvert
hadbeen Soutar’s real object, the services or experienced wreckers,
provided with wrecking schooners, and wrecking pumps, anchors, ca-
bles,_fal_ls, and other expensive material such as are kept on hand
only by professional wreckers, wouldhave been sought in Havana,