1872-1873 Correspondence of Dennis and Scott with Marston and Crapo

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[letterhead F. Upshur Dennis. John Scott, Jr.

Law Offices of Dennis & Scott, 51 West Fayette Street.

Baltimore,] Octr. 31st 1872

Messrs. Marston & Crapo Attorneys &c. New Bedford

Gentlemen: Yours of the 28th inst: in reply to ours of some days earlier addressed to Mr. Lonne Snow, is just received.

The matter about which we wished to correspond with you, as Agents and Attorneys for claimants for damages on account of depredations by the "Shenandoah", is this: We represent parties who have in their possession the log book of that vessel,

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and wish to dispose of it to your clients, in case you deem it to their interest to buy.

As is the rule at present, I believe, in our Navy, so also in the Confederate Navy - it was required of all vessels in that service to keep two logs - the one, called the "rough log", remaining with and for the use of the vessel, - the other, called the "smooth log" and prepared with more care and detail, intended for filing among the Records of the Navy Department.

This last - the smooth log of the Shenandoah - is the one to which we refer, the rough log, we are informed, having been destroyed.

This book contains a full and particular account of

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all captures made by that vessel, and a valuation thereof made at the time by a board of officers appointed for that purpose, up to the date of the 3rd of August, 1865, when, for the first time hearing of the surrender, she ceased operations. The most of, if not all, the capture of the Whaling vessels - whose owners you represent - occurred after the Shenandoah left Melbourne, and are therefore embraced within the provisions of the Geneva Award, and the accounts thereof and the valuations are in this book.

These valuations, made as above indicated, are probably high, for the following reasons: first, because,

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in making the valuation the opinions and statements of the captains and officers of the captured vessels had necessarily to a great extent to be relied upon - and it was to their interest, as representing the owners, to have the loss appear as great as possible; and secondly, the board of officers, being entitled to a share of the value of the capture for prize - money, more thus likewise interested in having to estimate high.

These valuations, contained in this log, as regard as the best evidence, in the nature of the case, of which your claims, in their further prosecution against the U.S. Government, are susceptible

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it is not only testimony from a third and impartial party, as between your clients and this Government, but the entries of these valuations were made at the time of destruction, and in the discharge of an official duty; and the valuations themselves were likewise made in the discharge of official duty.

If you shall be of our opinion as to the nature and value of this testimony, and deem it to be to the interests of your clients to have the book, let us hear from you to that ef-

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