Court Case Concerning the Insurance Fraud of the Scottish Ships "Endeavor," and "New York" The "Endeavour" Being Captured by American Privateers Before the Damage was Discovered LAW. Court Case Concerning the ships "Endeavor," and "New York". Edinburgh: 1784. Full Description:
Court Case Concerning the ships "Endeavor," and "New York"
Edinburgh, 1784.
Edinburgh: 1784.
Disbound pamphlet recounting the events leading up to the insurance fraud court case of two Scottish ship owners, John McIver and Archibald McCallum. Also included are lists of witnesses. Quarto (9 1/8 x 7 1/2 inches; 232 x 190 mm). 10 pp. Disbound, stabholes present. Some creasing to leaves. Overall very good. We could find no other copies on Rare Book Hub or World Cat.
McIver and McCallum were co-owners of a shipping vessel the Endeavour and McCallum was also the owner of a shipping vessel the New York. Both of these vessels were insured for the the contents that they contained and both ships were intentionally damaged so that the insurance could be collected. The Endeavour was taken by American privateers who discovered holes drilled in the bottom of the ship.
"The Greenock insurance scandal of 1784 rocked the commercial world of the Clyde that was already suffering badly from the disintegration of its great tobacco trade. At any other time the frauds might have gone undetected, but both local and London underwriters, hard-hit by the large number of Scottish ships lost during the American Revolutionary War, initiated enquiries into the nature of those losses... In the first of two separate but related cases it was alleged that John Mclver and Archibald McCullum, merchants in Greenock, had conspired to cast away the Endeavour on a voyage to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1781, although before she could be sunk she was captured by American privateers, who were understandably annoyed to find only a fraction of her manifested cargo covering the temporary bungs which her master had not yet drawn.' In the second case it was alleged that McCullum had conspired with James Herdman of Greenock and with William Foley, the master, to sink the New York, which had sailed for New York and Philadelphia in 1783 with a cargo of tea, wine and other goods, part of which had been unloaded at Fairlie before the vessel left the Clyde to founder off the American coast... The cases in 1784 were the first to be tried in Edinburgh since 1751... In 1784, however, the immensely long arguments of defence did not convince the Judge, who delivered his "solemn judgment" that the statutes did indeed apply to Scotland. It is therefore surprising that the Solicitor General, having won his point with several hours of detailed argument, should in both the 1784 cases declare that he did not wish the death penalty to be imposed... Since the Endeavour had foundered after her crew had been removed by the American privateer, the judge held that Mclver and McCullum could only be charged with the common law offense of stealing the cargo, and not with the capital offense of sinking the ship to disguise that theft" (Marine Insurance Frauds in Scotland1751-1821. Cases of Deliberate Shipwreck Tried in the Scottish Court of Admiralty. Gordon Jackson)
HBS 69504.
$1,250.
Price: $1,250.00
Item #69504