Names, residence, and description of the owners, and number of sixty-fourth shares held by each owner:

Thomas Stead, of Nassau, New Providence, clerk.....

64

E. B. A. TAYLOR,

Acting Registrar.

ROBT. BUTLER,

Indorsed: Sold to a foreigner-Register missing.

Acting Registrar.

(Signed)

JOHN D.,
Registrar.

Length from the fore part of stem under the bowsprit to the aft side of the head of the stern post...

Main breadth to outside plank..

Depth in hold from tonnage-deck to ceiling at midships..

TONNAGE.

Carvel.

None.

None.

Wood.

I, the undersigned, Thomas Stead, of Nassau, clerk, declare as follows: I am a naturalborn British subject, born at Southwark, in the county of Surrey, and have never taken the oath of allegiance to any foreign state. The above general description of the ship is correct. J. B. Jones, whose certificate of competency or service is No. -, is the master of the said ship. I am entitled to be registered as owner of sixty-four 64th shares of the said ship. To the best of my knowledge and belief, no person or body of persons other than such persons or bodies of persons as are by the merchant shipping act, 1854, qualified to be owners of British ships, is entitled, as owner, to any interest whatever, either legal or beneficial, in the said ship. And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true.

(Signed)

THOMAS STEAD.

Made and subscribed the 10th day of April, 1863, by the above named, in the presence of, E. B. A. TAYLOR, Acting Registrar.

(Signed)

A true copy:

(Signed)

FEBRUARY 8, 1872.

No. 60. Permanent.

ROBT. BUTLER, Acting Registrar.

Number sixty.

CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA.

Register of vessels.

In pursuance of existing laws and an act of the congress of the Confederate States of America, entitled 'An act to provide for the registration of vessels owned in whole or in part by the citizens of the Confederate States."

Thomas B. Power, of the city of Charleston, South Carolina, having taken or subscribed the oath required by law, and having sworn that he is only owner of the ship

or vessel called the Retribution, of Charleston, whereof John Parker is at present [196] * master, and is a citizen of the Confederate States, and that the said ship or

vessel was built in the year 1856, as appears by her former United States enrollment now surrendered. Property and nationality changed:

And said enrollment having certified that the said ship or vessel Retribution has one deck and two masts, and that her length is 96 feet; her breadth 19 feet; her depth 9 feet, and that she measures about 150 tons; that she is a schooner, has no galleries, and a stem head:

And the said Thomas B. Power having agreed to the description and admeasurement above specified, and sufficient security having been given according to law, the said schooner has been duly registered in the port of Charleston.

Given under our hands and seals at the port of Charleston this 21st day of November, 1862.

(Signed)

RO. TYLER, Registrar.
W. F. COLCOCK, Collector.
JOHN LAURENS, Naval Officer.

PORT OF NASSAU, New Providence, Bahamas.

This vessel registered at this port as Etta, No. 37, 10th April, 1863.

(Signed)

FEBRUARY 12, 1872.

ROBT. BUTLER,

Acting Registrar.

No. 29.

Evidence of Edward Barnett Anderson Taylor and of Thomas Sampson, given in the case of the Etta, before the United States district court of New Jersey.

Edward Barnett Anderson Taylor, of the city of Nassau, in the island of New Providence, esquire, aged thirty-three years and upwards, being duly and publicly sworn pursuant to the directions hereto annexed, and examined on the part of the United States of America, plaintiffs in the said suit, doth depose and say as follows:

1. To the first interrogatory he saith: While I was acting receivergeneral and treasurer and registrar of shipping, the Retribution did not enter as a trader in this port of Nassau; she was treated as a confederate vessel of war; such vessels do not pass the receiver-general's office at all.

2. To the second interrogatory he saith: There is no entry whatever of the schooner Retribution in the books of the office of the receivergeneral, which is the office of customs at Nassau. The first entry of the schooner Etta is the 11th day of April, when she cleared from the port of Baltimore.

3. To the third interrogatory he saith: A formal British register was granted from the office of registrar of shipping at Nassau for the Etta; it was issued on the 11th of April, 1863. The Retribution was condemned by a board of survey, and sold at public auction by Messrs. H. Adderley & Co. The register was granted to Thomas Stead on his producing a bill of sale and making the declaration of ownership, under the merchant shipping act, 1854, as a natural-born British subject. The auctioneers gave the title upon which she was registered.

4. To the fourth interrogatory he saith: I am prepared to state that the requirements of the law, in the case of the Etta, were complied with, and that the purchasers were entitled to a register. I am not aware that when the Retribution arrived here she had no legally appointed master, who, as agent for the owners, could give validity to such a condemnation, and that a bill of sale from any other than the legal master would be fictitious and of no value. I never so advised any one. I have reported the transaction with reference to the Etta to

the home authorities, but never informed them that there were any irregularities, there being none to my knowledge.

Thomas Sampson sworn: I live in New York, 303, Third avenue; am a detective in the Treasury Department. I was in the Bahama Islands in the spring of 1863. I saw the schooner Retribution then; first saw her on the south side of Long Key; was a rebel privateer and armed. I saw two of the officers of the vessel-was first and second lieutenant-was introduced by an acting magistrate of Long Key, I had conversation with them. She was lying outside of the Emily Fisher, that was consigned to Moses Taylor, New York. She lay outside of the Emily Fisher, the Emily Fisher inside. We had [197] a general talk about the difficulty with the North and *South.

Captain of Retribution said that they had done nothing more than the North had. They did not say particularly what they had done. Was three-quarters of a mile from Retribution. member distinctly seeing one gun, and I think two. About the 15th of February, 1863. Next see the Retribution about a month afterward at Cochrane's Anchorage, about five miles from city of Nassau; was lightering cotton, lying beside a large ship. I did not see her afterward in Nassau. I think she had no guns there. I know Locke or Parker, captain of Retribution, by reputation, not personally. I know by good report that Locke had been clerk for Adderley & Co., and captain of a vessel of his-the Retribution-publicly and generally known at Nassau as a rebel privateer; her character was as general as anything could be, nobody doubted; it was notorious. I left Nassau near 1st April, 1863; only at Nassau seven or eight days.

Cross-examined:

Was attached to Marshal Murray's department and acting deputy about two years; have had present appointment since 16th December last. More than one and half years before I got present employment was deputy, and was sent to Nassau by board of underwriters and by the marshal; my business was to look after wreckers and blockade run. ners. Went about during the day at Nassau among blockade-runners getting information. Knew nothing about Retribution till I saw her at south side of Long Key. Never went on board of her.

Re-examined:

Adderley & Co., have a large store; principal merchants there. I know they were engaged in the business of blockade-runners to a large extent. Did not know Byron Bode.