Iditarod pioneer., 1914-11-14
ARBITRATION OF CLAIMS
 RECALLS STIRRING TIMES

The hearings before the international trl- bunal of the American and British claims arbitration, which began in Washington last spring, involved some stirring tales of sea adventure when the sealing schooners that swarmed Berng sea more than twenty years ago went out of the Seattle and the British Columbia cities of Victoria and Vancouver savs g correspondent of the Seattle Post Intelligencer.
 While many men now living in Seattle participated in the sea hunt for fur seals, generally they sailed under the British flag and the claims arising from the seizure of their ships by American revenue cutters are mostly British.
 Perhaps the most notable of the cases to be arbitrated was that of the Coqultlam, supply ship for ninety-hve small schooners engaged in hunting seals in the Berng sea in 1892.
 The owners of the Coquitlam sought to recover S104000 for the seizure of thelr steamer. Among the large items in the bill of damages were fees paid to E. (. Hughes, James Hamilton Lewis, StruVe < McMicken and Stratton, Lewis x Gilman. The steamer Coquitlam, Edwin E. Mo Lellan, master, left Victoria in the spring of 1892 to take supplies to the British seal l ing schooners and to take back thelr catch of furs. In those days the United States contended that Berlng sea was closed sea so far as pelagic sealing was concerned, l and although in 1893, at an international conference, this position was not sustained l zone having a radius of sixty miles from | the Pribilof islands was closed to sealers by the nations taking part in the convention The Coqutlam had arranged rendez- vous with the sealing schooners Brenda, Umbrina, Sea Lion, Venture, Maud S., Wal ter A. Earle, Viva, Oscar & Hattie and Pawn at Tonki bay, on Afgonak island. In | order to keep within the law the Coqutlam lowed the schooners beyond the three -mlle limit and there transferred cargoes. 1 After receiving the sealskins, the Coqut- lam steamed into Tonki bay and was seized 1 by the United States cutter Corwln The steamer was taken to Sitka, where 1t was turned over to customs officers and the crew placed in the custody of the United States marshal.
 Although it was shown that the transfer of cargoes had taken place beyond the three mile limit, it was contended upon the part of the United States that under an old la" sometimes known as the British lowering act" designed to prevent operations oi smugglers vessels could be seized within twelve miles of the coast.
 l Upon the trial of the libel, the Coquitlam and her cargo were condemned by the United States district court An appeal was taken to the United States court of appeals and the libel was subsequently, dismissed,
 One of the officers of the Coqultlam was Ashmun N Brown of the Post -lntelligencer staff. Mir Brown wished to get story oi the Boring sea sealers and as the Coqutlam could not carry passengers, he was taken OF as fourth officer of the ship, with few duties and a great deal of leisure.
 Although Mr. Brown learned all he knew of navigation on the water front in Seattle he took his regular watch, having however a competent quartermaster to steer the ship Upon one occasion Mir. Brown was in strueted by the captain to watch fer ths