Prize not sustained, because the pass bore not the port to which the ship was bound, it being proved, that the ship and cargo belonged to freemen.
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The St Peter of Stoad having loosed from Bream, had a pass from the governor of Bream, and city of Stoad, and therewith went to Longsound in Norway, and took in a loading of joists, balks, and other timber, and loosed from Longsound, having a cocquet, bearing, the loading, but not expressing the port, and being thereupon taken and adjudged,
The Lords found, That the loading being contraband, and no document to show the Port to which the ship was directed, and that the Swedish passes did not express that the ship was directed for Norway, to be carried to Ollenburghland, Which the skipper pretended to be the port, that therefore the ship was warrantably seized, not having a pass for the particular voyage, expressing both the owners of the ship and loading; that therefore, the burden of probation lay upon the strangers, to instruct, that the ship and loading did truly belong to the Swedish subjects; but found the loading, as being contraband, for the use of shipping, to be prize, because the port to which the ship was directed was not instructed by the documents, and so was presumed to be intended for Holland; but in respect the Swedes have the benefit of the treaty of Breda, the Lords superceded to give answer to this point, whether if the ship were proved to belong to the Swedes, it should be free by the said treaty, though it carried contraband.
