'Also to condemn the said steamboat, her tackle, apparel, and furniture, and all persons intervening for their interest therein, in costs and expenses.
'JOSEPH SUMNER,
E. H. OWEN.'
After a stipulation had been entered into for costs by the libellants, a monition and attachment were issued, under which the marshal attached the vessel; a stipulation being entered into on behalf of the vessel in the sum of five thousand dollars, she was discharged.
In September, 1846, the following answer was filed:-- 'To the Honorable Samuel R. Betts, Judge of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.
'And now Edward B. St. John, of the city of New York, in the district aforesaid, intervening for his interest in the steamboat Neptune, appears before the honorable court, and for answer to the libel and complaint of Zebulon A. Paine of Eastport, in the state of Maine, Sarah Norwood of same place, and John Bucknam, Andrew Bradford, Joseph Sumner, James McCollar, Ambrose Tucker, James Woorster, Henry Cuff, Augustus Norton, against the steamboat Neptune, and all parties intervening for their interest in the same, propounds as follows:--
'1st. That the respondent, at the time in the said libel set forth, to wit, on the 14th day of July aforesaid, and before and afterwards, was the lawful owner of the said steamboat Neptune, a vessel of 720 tons, or thereabouts, now in the service of the United States, and having sailed for Texas or Mexico.
'2d. And the respondent, as to the allegations of the said libellants, and each of them, in the first, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth articles of the said libel contained, says that he is ignorant of and not informed concerning the same save by the said libel, and cannot therefore admit or deny the same to be true, but leaves the same to be proved according to the custom and practice of this court. And the said respondent further alleges and propounds, that the matters in the second, third, and fourth articles of the said libel are in great part falsely alleged, and that the truth is, as this respondent is informed and believes, as is hereinafter particularly propounded.
'3d. That the said steamboat Neptune, being in good order and well and sufficiently equipped and manned, sailed from the port of New York, in the state of New York, at five o'clock in the afternoon of the 14th day of July, 1846, bound for Newport and Providence, in the state of Rhode Island; and, in prosecution of her voyage, proceeded on her passage, at her regular rate, until about one mile from Stratford light-boat, when, at or about eight or ten o'clock in the evening, a vessel was seen about half a quarter of a mile ahead, which vessel the respondent understood to have been the schooner Iole, as is alleged in said libel.