Campbell

This was a libel by seamen for wages, earned on board the above vessel, and for two months’ extra wages, under the acts of congress. The men were discharged by the American consul at Panama. His certificate is produced showing this fact, and that he had required the payment of the extra allowance by the master. The facts of the case are as follow’s:

The vessel libelled belongs to a line of vessels engaged in transportation of passengers from this port to New York, via Nicaragua. About the 18th or 19th of February, 1855,, the then government of Nicaragua seized all the property of the company on the isthmus, under the allegation that they were indebted to the republic of Nicaragua. The necessary effect of this seizure would have been to break up the communication between the oceans, and deprive the company of the means of forwarding either passengers or freight. Mr. William R. Garrison, son of the *1197 company’s agent, at this port, who was on the isthmus at the time of the seizure, made an arrangement by which the possession and the use of their property was restored to the company until some permanent settlement of the dispute could be effected. Mr. Garrison duly apprised the…