Page:Handbook of maritime rights.djvu/143

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CONCLUSION.
129

ship was released, however probable it might appear that papers, swearings, and all were false, and the neutrality of the vessel only colourable. It was not difficult to drive a three-decker through such a mode of procedure. Every kind of device was had recourse to in order to bring belligerent property to what was called a "safe-footing." The Standing Interrogatories of the English prize courts became a subject of careful study. A book called Vraagen en Antwoorden was published in Holland, suggesting the proper answers to be given to these Standing Interrogatories by masters of captured vessels so as to escape condemnation; and in the ship's papers of a prize taken into Harwich the specific answers which would suit the case of the vessel in question were found jotted down in pencil on the margin of the pages of Vraagen en Antwoorden opposite to the "Standing Interrogatories of the English Prize Courts." These frauds all flourished