The Douro

Syllabus

The Douro. The court reproves counsel who -take appeals without any expectation oí reversal, and declares that if it had power to impose a penalty in such cases, as it has when writs of error are sued out for delay merely, it would impose it. Appeal from a decree of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York, condemning the Douro and her cargo for a breaeh of the blockade of the port of Wilmington, North Carolina, established by our government during the late rebellion. The vessel had been captured as prize of war by one of the government steamers, about two hundred miles oft' the port just named, and being brought into the port of New York was there libelled in prize. C. Edwards, Esq., as attorney, filed a claim for certain British subjects, owners of the vessel and cargo. These admitted in substance that the vessel had come out of the port of Wilmington on the voyage in which she was captured, but alleged that there was no efficient blockade of that port, and seemed to rest their defence on the ground, that having eluded the vigilance of the blockading vessels on duty oft* that port, and reached the open sea, she was not subject to capture by any other vessel of the United States. The test-oaths were made by Mr. Edwards only. The master of the captured vessel, on his examination preparatory to the original hearing, said; “ I knew the port of Wilmington was blockaded when I went in, for I had six guns fired at me; and I knew it when I came