A ship is sometimes sold either abroad or at home under a decree of Admiralty. If this rest upon a condemnation of a ship, whether as prize, or for forfeiture, or in execution of a decree to pay salvage, or to discharge a bottomry bond, or to satisfy a lien which admiralty would enforce, it would be valid and binding upon all courts and all parties of all nations, (h) unless it could be proved to be vitiated by fraud. But it seems that if the decree for a sale rests only on a survey asserting unseaworthiness, and takes place in a foreign port, then the courts of the country to which the ship belongs, will regard the decree as of little more than cumulative authority for the report of the surveyors; and will look into the actual facts to ascertain whether they justified the report and the decree. (i) But the practice of selling by decree of admiralty merely for unseaworthiness is but little known in this country. The court must be a regular admiralty ig) Pike v. Balch, 38 Maine, 302; Hall v. Franklin Ins. Co. 9 Pick. 466; Peirce v. Ocean Ins, Co. 18 Pick. 83.

(e) Scull v. Briddle, 2 Wash. C. C. 150.

(/) The Brig Sarah Ann, 8 Sumner, 215, affirmed New Engr. Ins. Co. v. Brig Sarah Ann, 13 Pet. 887.

(h) The Tremont, 1 W. Rob. 163; Attorney-General v. Norstedt, 3 Price, 97;

The Helena, 4 Rob. 3; Grant v. M'Lachlin, 4 Johns. 34.

(i) Reid v. Darby, 10 East, 143; Hunter v. Prinsep, 10 East, 378; Morris v. Robinson, 3 B. & C. 203; The Sch. Tilton, 5 Mason, 474; Jamey v. Columbian Ins. Co. 10 Wheat. 411, 418; Dorr v. Pacific Ins. Co. 7 Wheat 681; The Dawn, Ware, 487.

court, recognized by the law of nations. The sufficiency, authority, and jurisdiction of the court may be inquired into. (j) Neither in England nor in this country is a consul or any person holding court as a judge in a neutral port under a commission from his own country, recognized as being or having the authority of a court of admiralty. (k)