rize, but that effectual
possession, that if not interrupted by recapture, would have enabled
the captor to exercise rights of war over her. For this purpose it is
not necessary that the possession should be _long_ maintained. The
following are some examples of such effectual possession.

An English merchantman, separated from her convoy during a storm, was
brought to by an enemy's lugger, which came up and told the master to
stay by her till the storm was abated, when they would send a man on
board; a British frigate coming up afterwards chased the lugger and
took her, thus releasing the merchantman; the frigate was held
entitled to salvage.[132]

But when a small English vessel, armed with two swivels, forced a
privateer row-boat from Dunkirk to strike, but was not able to board
her, because the English vessel has only three men, and no arms but
the swivels,--the Frenchman being filled with a well armed crew; and
subsequently, the row-boat was forced to put into the port of Ostend,
then the port of an ally; this might not be a capture under the act,
so much as it was under the general maritime law.

A vessel brought out of port, and which was in the power, though not
in the actual occupation of the enemy, was thus rescued from
considerable peril, was held to be recaptured.[133]

Similarly, with a vessel abandoned by the enemy, having possession of
her, through the terror of an approaching force.[134]

There is no claim to Salvage where the property rescued was not in the
possession of the enemy, or so nearly as to be certainly and
inevitably under his grasp.

[Sidenote: Recapture of Property of Allies.]

England restores the Recaptured Property of her Allies, on the payment
of salvage; but if instances can be given of British property retaken
by them, and condemned as prize, the Court of Admiralty will determine
their cases according to their own rule.[135]

[Sidenote: Recapture of Neutral Property.]

It is not the practice of modern nations to grant Salvage on the
Recapture of Neutral Vessels; and upon this plain principle, that the
liberation of a clear neutral from the hand of the enemy, is no
essential service to him; for the enemy would be compelled by the
tribunals of his own country, after he had carried the neutral into
port, to release him with costs and damages, for the injurious seizure
and detention. This proceeds on the supposition, that those tribunals
would duly respect the law of nations; a