Germany under the Treaty of Versailles held that Germany was not obligated to pay any indemnity to Greece for the destruction of this vessel.

Démètre, Paul et Constantin Marouli (Banque Marouli Brothers) (Oct. 4, 1928), docket 560, VIII Recueil des décisions des Tribunaux Arbitraux Mixtes 345, 348. To the same effect, see Etienne C. Costomenis et Spyridon N. Valmadis (Greece v. Germany, Mixed Arbitral Tribunal, Feb. 21, 1929), docket 200, ibid. 848; Annual Digest, 1929-30, Case No. 302; and Antoine Embiricos (Greece v. Germany, Mixed Arbitral Tribunal, July 24, 1930), docket 206, X Recueil des décisions des Tribunaux Arbitraux Mixtes 104.

Recapture of allied ship condemned

by enemy

RECAPTURE

8644

The term recapture, says Hyde, refers to the "retaking by force of a captured ship from the control and possession of the captor". The retaking, he states, "may assume the form of rescue by persons on board the captured ship; or it may be accomplished by persons disconnected with the vessel and attached to another craft".

II Hyde, International Law, etc. (1922) 505.

See Rev. Stat., sec. 4652. With respect to prize-court decisions concerning recapture during the World War of 1914-18, see Verzijl, Le droit des prises de la Grande Guerre (1924) 1281-1315; A. N. Sack, Belligerent Recaptures in International Practice (1940).

Two Belgian lighters were captured by a German warship on the high seas while on a voyage from Rotterdam to England and were condemned as enemy vessels. They were later abandoned by the German forces in their retreat from Belgium and were recaptured by Belgian authorities. The Belgian Prize Council condemned them as prize.

The Avenir and The Pays-Bas (Nov. 3, 1919), 47 Revue de droit international et de législation comparée (3d ser., vol. I, 1920) 137.

An allied (English) vessel captured by Germany and condemned as prize by German prize courts was recaptured by Belgian forces after it had been sunk by German troops upon their evacuation of the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. The Belgian Council of Prizes held on October 23, 1919 that the Belgian state had title to it as a captured enemy merchant vessel. The Council said:

But, whereas, moreover the recapture or recovery, with the rights and obligations which certain publicists of international law attach thereto, is possible only if no judgment validating the original prize has been rendered; whereas, in case of the existence of such a judgment, we are dealing with a new prize which is governed with respect to all neutrals as well as

allies, by the ordinary rules, and which admits of no restriction upon the absolute rights of the captor;

Whereas, in sinking the Brussels under the aforementioned conditions and after a detention of more than one year, these authorities have committed with regard to the ship an act of appropriation jure belli, characterized and definitive in such a way that with regard to the hostile belligerent, the Belgian State, which has captured the ship subsequently, this ship can and should be considered for this very reason as an enemy ship and of such a nature as to form a basis for the intrinsic right of the captor.

The Brussels, 16 A.J.I.L. (1922) 127, 128, 129.

Neutral

vessels

after

condemnation

A Brazilian vessel (neutral), captured on the high seas by German forces in December 1916 while carrying food destined from Rotterdam to London, was condemned by the Hamburg Prize Court for carriage of contraband. Upon their retreat from Belgium, German forces sank it in a Belgian port where it was recovered by Belgian recaptured forces in October 1918. The Belgian Prize Council condemned the vessel as good prize on the ground of enemy ownership, rejecting the claim of the original Brazilian owner. The Council said that the German prize decision was "definitive in so far as it is invoked by the Belgian State to serve as the basis of the latter's rights resulting from the recapture", and that it was solely for the prize court of the captor to determine whether the cargo was in fact contraband and the capture justifiable. The Council added that

there cannot be a "recapture" or "rescue" except when there has not yet been a judgment confirming the capture for the benefit of the first captor; .. in case such a judgment exists the property has been legally transferred to that captor and the recapture by the enemy is in reality a new capture with respect to which the original owner cannot put forward successfully a right of which he has been despoiled.

The Rio Pardo (Nov. 6, 1919), 47 Revue de droit international et de législation comparée (3d ser., vol. I, 1920) 273, 274, 275, translation.

To the same effect, see The Midsland (Oct. 17, 1919), ibid. 119. See also The Zaanstroom (Dec. 8, 1919), Grotius: Annuaire international (1924) 281.

A Netherlands vessel carrying a cargo of window glass destined from the Netherlands to a French port was seized and condemned by a German prize court for the carriage of contraband. Thereafter it was seized by Belgian troops in a Belgian port and was condemned by the Belgian Council of Prizes as an enemy vessel. The Belgian Council held in 1919 that the German prize-court decision had changed the ownership and nationality of the vessel even though window glass was not to be treated as contraband under the Declaration of London. The Agiena, 16 A.J.I.L. (1922) 117.

Recapture after

condemnation

and prior to
release
on appeal

A Netherlands sailing vessel, insured by an agency of the French Government, was captured July 4, 1917 on the high seas by a German submarine, escorted to the German-occupied Belgian port of Bruges, and declared good prize by a judgment of the German Prize Court of Hamburg. The former Netherlands owner assigned its right to the French insurer. The German Government on Oct. 12, 1918 sold the vessel to another Netherlands company. Shortly thereafter Belgian forces recaptured Bruges, and the Belgian Council of Prizes held that the vessel became the property of the Belgian Government because it was an enemy merchant vessel. It held that the claim of the original owner and the diplomatic claim of the French Government were cut off by the German prize-court decision whereby the vessel became German, and that the subsequent transfer of title and flag to a Netherlands purchaser was ineffectual. The Council pointed out that the transfer by the German Government to the Netherlands purchaser was ineffective since it took place while the vessel was in a blockaded port. The Roelfina (1919), 16 A.J.I.L. (1922) 136.

A Norwegian vessel was captured by German forces and condemned by the Hamburg Prize Court for carrying contraband. After the Armistice it was captured by French naval forces in the Baltic and condemned as an enemy vessel. The French Prize Council rejected the claim of the original Norwegian owners. It said that, even without considering the effect of the condemnation by the Hamburg Prize Court, the vessel had become German as a result of remaining several years in German possession and that, "according to the constant and traditional rule of our law, the neutral vessel which has remained more than twenty-four hours in the possession of the enemy is to be treated as enemy". The fact that the vessel had been carrying contraband on behalf of the Allies at the time of its capture by Germany was held to be immaterial. The Pluto (July 26, 1920), XXVIII Revue générale de droit international public (1921), Jurisprudence en matière de prises maritimes, 3, 5.

The Netherlands steamship Gelderland carrying a cargo of coal destined from an English port to Rotterdam was captured on the high seas on July 23, 1917 by a German airplane which conducted it to the German-occupied Belgian port of Zeebrugge. The German Prize Court of Hamburg declared it a valid prize on May 31, 1918, and subsequently, in October 1918, it was captured by Belgian troops in the port of Zeebrugge, where it had been sunk by the Germans. Several days thereafter the German Supreme Prize Court of Berlin rendered a decision on appeal decreeing the restoration of the vessel. The Belgian Council of Prizes held on October 17, 1919 that the vessel was good prize for the Belgian Government because it had become an enemy vessel, despite the claims of the original Netherlands owner. The Council said:

the act on the part of the German authorities in sinking the vessel without awaiting the result of the appeal from this decision, constituted a new and absolute bar to the subsequent possibility of the rendition of a decision by the Court of Appeals

for any other purpose than to permit the interested company to claim damages from the German state;

in sinking the Gelderland under these conditions after a detention of almost two years, the German naval authorities have committed an act of appropriation jure belli

The Gelderland, 16 A.J.I.L. (1922) 129, 130, 135.

vessel,

At the outbreak of the World War in 1914 the vessel Pass of Neutral Balmaha flew the British flag and was owned by a Canadian cor- double poration, 95 percent of whose stock was American-owned. There- recapture after all the stock was bought by American interests and the vessel's ownership was transferred to an American company. In January 1915 it was transferred from British to United States registry. The ship carried a cargo of cotton to Germany, meeting with no difficulty in the German port of Bremen. On a later voyage, while carrying a cargo of cotton destined for the Russian port of Archangel, it was stopped by a British cruiser, and a prize crew was put on board to take it into a British port. On the way a German submarine captured the vessel (July 24, 1915) and took it to a German port, where the ship was condemned by the Hamburg Prize Court as an enemy vessel whose transfer of flag after the outbreak of war could not prevent capture and condemnation. The cargo was released. The ship was then employed by the German Government as a raider under Count von Luckner and was finally wrecked on a Pacific island. French authorities captured the wreck and brought prize proceedings against it for condemnation as a German vessel. The former American owners claimed that they were entitled to the wreck or its proceeds on the ground of recapture. The French Prize Council said that

it is proven ... that after its capture the Pass of Balmaha was transformed into a German war vessel under the name of Seeadler, and that it took part actively in the operations of the imperial navy against the Allies; whereas it therefore lost the character of a merchant vessel;

whatever may have been the circumstances in which the said ship was captured by the Germans, the fact that the vessel had become a warship at the time it fell within the power of the French naval forces prevents the Prize Council from adjudicating upon the validity of the capture or upon the merit of the claims of the former owners.

[Translation.]

The Seeadler, ex Pass of Balmaha (July 26, 1920), XXVIII Revue générale de droit international public (1921), Jurisprudence en matière de prises maritimes, 1, 2; the Consul General at Hamburg (Morgan) to the Secretary of State (Lansing), undated telegram received Aug. 6, 1915, MS. Department of State, file 362.115H21/7; the Ambassador to Germany

Enemy vessel, double recapture

Enemy vessels,

constructive double recapture

(Gerard) to Mr. Lansing, telegram 2779, Aug. 25, 1925, ibid. /17; Mr. Lansing to Mr. Gerard, no. 1252, Sept. 11, 1915, ibid. /20; the Consul at Bremen (Fee) to Mr. Lansing, Aug. 18, 1915, ibid. /35; Mr. Lansing to the American Legation at Copenhagen, telegram 2382, Nov. 6, 1915, ibid. /61.

With respect to the German seizure, Mr. Lansing telegraphed the Ambassador to Germany that:

"In view prior and present American ownership of vessel, of good faith of transfer to American registry, that ship was purchased for trade in cotton with German ports and of action of German government in offering no objection to transfer while ship was so employed, the Department earnestly hopes that the German Government will set free the Pass of Balmaha without adjudication by prize court. In this relation attention may be called to the action of British Government in not offering objection to the transfer to American register of German registered ships where the real ownership is shown to have resided in American citizens at the outbreak of hostilities." Mr. Lansing to the American Legation at Copenhagen, telegram 2382, Nov. 6, 1915, MS. Department of State, file 362.115H21/61.

For the decision of the Hamburg Prize Court on Dec. 11, 1915, see The Pass of Balmaha, IX Zeitschrift für Völkerrecht (1916), p. 558; Verzijl, Le droit des prises de la Grande Guerre (1924) 415.

Belgian forces captured a German vessel in the port of Antwerp in 1914. When German troops took Antwerp they seized the vessel and used it as a mine-layer; apparently no prize proceedings were instituted by the German authorities. Just before the Armistice the German Government sent the vessel to the Netherlands where it was interned and later restored to the Belgian authorities. Thereafter the Belgian Prize Council condemned it as an enemy merchant vessel.

The Féronia (Nov. 3, 1919), 47 Revue de droit international et de législation comparée (3d ser., vol. I, 1920) 271.

In 1914 a German vessel in the Belgian port of Ghent was seized by Belgian authorities after the expiration of three or four days of grace following the outbreak of war. Upon the German occupation of Belgium it was taken by German authorities; apparently prize proceedings were not instituted. At the time of the German retreat, German authorities sent the vessel into Netherlands waters to prevent its seizure by the Allies, and the Netherlands Government interned it. The Belgian Prize Council thereafter condemned the vessel as an enemy merchant vessel found in port at the outbreak of the war and not entitled to exemption by virtue of Hague Convention VI. The Council said:

Whereas notwithstanding that prohibition [by the Netherlands Government] a short time before the Armistice the Germans sent the vessel into Holland so as to prevent its falling into the hands of the Allies

from the fact of this violation of Dutch neutrality no right in favor of Germany or its nationals should result

...