Fitz v. The Amelie

CLIFFORD, Circuit Justice.

The authority of a master to sell his ship under any circumstances was denied by some of the continental writers upon maritime law, and by some of the early decisions in the courts of the parent country. The reason given for the prohibition was, that such authority, if allowed, would tend to encourage fraud. Tremenhere v. Tresillian, 1 Sid. 452; Johnson v. Shippen. 2 Ld. Raym. 984; Reid v. Darby, 10 East, 143; Abb. Shipp. (5th Ed.) 9; Ekins v. East India Co., 1 P. Wms. 395.

A careful scrutiny of those cases, however, will show that the circumstances in most of them…