The Ocean Spray

DEADY, District Judge.

On March 27, 1876, the schooner Ocean Spray, of eighty-three tons burden, being duly enrolled and licensed, at San Francisco, for “the fishing trade,” sailed from that port, as appears by her shipping articles, for “Behring Sea or elsewhere, as the master may direct, on a fishing voyage”— Frank Howell, charterer, and Thomas Butler, master. The crew consisted of the first and second mate, four men before the mast, and a cook. She kept no log and had no manifest. Her cargo consisted of forty-five tons of salt, fourteen barrels of beef, two of pork, twelve of flour,…