The Mercia
| Docket Number | Case No. 203 |
| Date | 14 Diciembre 1939 |
| Court | Prize Court (Germany) |
Prize Law — Absolute Contraband — Passing of the Property in the Cargo — Effect on Compensation claims — Effect on Liability of Vessel to Condemnation.
The Facts.—The Swedish shipping company, Arild, on September 20, 1939, hired out their steamer Mercia on charter to the Swedish Cellulose Company of Stockholm, for a voyage from Nyhamn (Sweden) to Tyne Dock (England) to carry a cargo of easy bleaching sulphite pulp. The Mercia was a Swedish vessel. The cargo was loaded in Sundsvall and consisted of one consignment of the charterers and two consignments from the Nyham Cellulose Company. The consignees were English firms. On September 29, 1939, the Mercia left Hyhamn for Helsingborg (Sweden), where she was to be provisioned, before proceeding to Tyne Dock. However, before the Mercia reached Helsingborg she was ordered by a German naval aircraft south of Hanoe to alter course. A few hours later she was stopped by a German warship searched, seized in prize, and later taken to Stettin (Germany). In prize proceedings the condemnation of vessel and cargo was claimed, without compensation, on the ground that the Mercia's cargo of easy bleaching sulphite pulp was material to be used in the manufacture of explosives, and that it was therefore absolute contraband whose enemy destination was established by the fact that the cargo was to be unloaded in an English port.
Four defendants appeared: the shipping company, Arild, for the ship, the two cellulose companies for the cargo, and the insurance company, Ocean, as insurers of the cargo. The defendants disputed that the cargo was contraband or had an enemy destination. The cellulose, they said, would have to be treated by the purchasers in their paper factories, and thus the final destination could not be clearly determined. At any rate, condemnation of the vessel or cargo should carry compensation, for the captain, at the time of capture, had no idea that the cargo was on the German list of absolute contraband. For the captors it was argued that the captain's ignorance was immaterial, because enemy goods and not neutral goods were consigned on board the ship.
Held: that the Mercia and its cargo of easy bleaching sulphite pulp must be condemned, and all claims for compensation rejected.
The Contraband Nature of the Cargo.—“For the condemnation of the Mercia's cargo of easy bleaching sulphite pulp it is necessary to show, according to both recognised...
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