During the
Revolutionary War,
Capt. Gideon Olmstead, with some other
Connecticut men, was captured at sea by a British vessel and taken to
Jamaica, where the captain and three others of the prisoners were compelled or persuaded to enter as sailors on the British sloop
Active, then about to sail for New York with stores for the
British there.
When off the coast of
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Delaware the captain and the other three
Americans contrived to secure the rest of the crew and officers (fourteen in number) below the hatches.
They then took possession of the vessel and made for
Little Egg Harbor.
A short time after, the
Active was boarded by the sloop
Convention of
Philadelphia, and, with the privateer
Girard, cruising with her, was taken to
Philadelphia.
The prize was there libelled in the State court of admiralty.
Here the two vessels claimed an equal share in the prize, and the court decreed one-fourth to the crew of the
Convention, one-fourth to the
State of Pennsylvania as owner of the
Convention, one-fourth to the
Girard, and the remaining one-fourth only to
Olmstead and his three companions.
Olmstead appealed to Congress, and the committee of appeals decided in his favor.
The
Pennsylvania court refused to yield, and directed the prize sold and the money paid into court to await its further order.
This contest continued until 1809, when the authorities of
Pennsylvania offered armed resistance to the United States marshal at
Philadelphia, upon which he called to his assistance a
Posse comitatus of 2,000 men. The matter was, however, adjusted without an actual collision, and the money, amounting to $18,000, paid to the United States marshal.
