CASE OF THE NORA.

Ship under the U.S. flag; laden with salt, under charter party with W.N. de Mattos, of London, to proceed to Calcutta.  In the bill of lading the cargo is consigned to “order;” and on the back of the bill is this endorsement:—­“I hereby certify that the salt shipped on board the Nora is the property of W.N. de Mattos, of London, and that the said W.N. de Mattos is a British subject, and was so at the time of shipment.

“(Signed) H.E.  FALK, Agent for W.N. de Mattos.”

At the bottom of the signature is “R.C.  Gardner, Mayor,” presumed to be intended for the signature of the Mayor of Liverpool.  As this statement is not under oath, and as there is no seal attached to it, it does not even amount to an ex parte affidavit.  Vessel and cargo condemned.

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Some valuable supplies were extracted from these two ships, and the prisoners—­one of them a female—­having been transferred to the Alabama, the vessels were fired on the evening of the day after their capture.  As was but too frequently the case in boarding prizes, access was by some means obtained to their strong liquor, and that evening saw a good deal of drunkenness on board the Alabama.  Unfortunately, the delinquents were but too often some of the best men in the ship.  They could be trusted with anything in the world but rum or whisky; but against temptation of this kind they were not proof, and the duty of boarding offered only too easy an opportunity of indulging this true sailor’s taste.  However, if the prizes had their little bit of revenge in thus creating a temporary disorder among their captors, they in this case, at all events, more than made up for it, by contributing an accession of half-a-dozen seamen to the crew, which, notwithstanding the discharge of the men sent home in the——­, was now fast growing very strong.

The following extract from a letter found on board the Charles Hill may throw some light on the pretensions of that vessel at all events, to the protection of neutrality:—­

CAPTAIN F. PERCIVAL.

DEAR SIR,—­I have read your several letters from Philadelphia.  As a rebel privateer has burned several American ships, it may be well if you can have your bills of lading endorsed as English property, and have your cargo certified to by the English Consul, &c.

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After crossing the equator during the night of the 29th-30th March, the Alabama experienced a succession of calms and wet weather; at one time chasing a vessel in so thick a mist that, though not more than a mile or two ahead, she was more than once lost sight of for an hour at a time.  She was still involved in this misty, uncomfortable weather, when, on the night of the 4th April, she again fell in with an United States ship, the Louisa Hatch, deeply laden with that, to the Alabama, most invaluable article—­coal.  An investigation of her papers gave the following result:—­