AN act of Congress of July 17, 1862, provides that prizes taken by the navy at sea, when of equal or superior force to the vessel or vessels making the capture, shall be the sole property of the captors, and when of inferior force shall be divided equally between the United States and the officers and men making the 'capture.' When the United States thus receive prize-money it is passed to the Naval Pension Fund.
With this act in force the Atlanta, a vessel of the late rebel confederacy, was captured by our navy and condemned, with her armament and stores, as prize by the District Court for Massachusetts.
Before the vessel could be brought into port for adjudication she was taken by the Secretary of the Navy for the use of the government, and her appraised value, $351,000, deposited with the proper officers of the Treasury subject to the order of the court.
In distributing this fund so deposited the question arose between the United States and certain of the captors whether the captured vessel was of superior or of inferior force to the force which had captured her; the importance of the question being, of course, in this,-that if she was of superior, the captors would get the whole of her value: while, if of inferior, they would have to share it with the government.
The facts of the capture were thus: