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APPENDIX TO REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE 
Appendix, No. 1. 
2.—As to Documents found on Board the detained Ships, 
Articles 58, 69, 85. 
These Articles which prescribe measures for the preservation and final delivery to the 
Court of Adjudication of all papers and documents found on board the detained vessels, 
are to be carried out with perfect fidelity and scrupulous care. 
The unexplained loss of any such document, and still more its destruction, on any pre 
text whatsoever, will lay the officer open to very serious imputation. 
3.—As to the Destruction of Vessels. 
Articles 60, 61. 
These Articles give authority to the officer to destroy a vessel which, on search, he 
considers to be engaged in or equipped for the slave trade, if, after survey held, it appears 
that she is not in a sufficiently sea-worthy condition to be sent to a port of adjudication. 
My Lords cannot, however, too strongly insist that such destruction of a vessel is only to 
be resorted to as an extreme measure. Nothing will excuse the officer in not sending in 
the vessel to a port of adjudication, except facts showing satisfactorily that doing so would 
have involved serious danger to the lives of the prize crew. 
In addition to this, the 390th Article is to be strictly observed as to Zanzibar vessels; 
“ If you have detained a Zanzibar vessel upon suspicion, and are unable to send 
her into the proper port of adjudication, you will not destroy her without (if prac 
ticable) having first ascertained at the nearest Zanzibar port, by inquiries from 
Her Majesty’s consul and others, that she was engaged in or equipped for the 
slave trade.” 
You are also strictly to observe all similar articles, with respect to vessels of other 
nationalities, to be found in the Special Instructions. 
4.—As to the Port of Adjudication. 
Articles 63, 65, 389. 
The two first named of these articles prescribe the general duty of forwarding the 
detained vessel with as little delay as possible to the port of adjudication, and direct the 
officer to refer to the special instructions to ascertain the proper port. 
The 389th Article, referring to Zanzibar vessels only, is as follows:— 
“ The proper port of adjudicatation for a Zanzibar vessel is the nearest or most 
accessible port at which a British Admiralty, or Vice Admiralty Court, is estab 
lished.” 
Since the issuing of these instructions, certain powers have been conferred on Her 
Majesty’s consul at Zanzibar, by Order in Council of 9th August 1866, and the statute 
32 & 33 Viet. c. 75. 
The 29th section of the Order in Council is in these words :— 
“ And it is further ordered that Her Majesty’s consul within the dominion of the 
Sultan of Zanzibar shall, for and within the said dominions, and for vessels and 
persons coming within those dominions, and in regard to vessels captured on suspi 
cion of being engaged in the slave trade within those dominions, have all such 
jurisdiction as for the time being ordinarily belongs to Courts of Vice Admiralty in 
Her Majesty’s possessions abroad.” 
The Act of Parliament extends the consul’s power; for the 2nd section is in these 
terms:— 
Her Majesty’s consul at Zanzibar for the time being shall have, and shall be 
deemed to have always since the commencement of the said Order in Council had, 
all 
It is quite otherwise where the slaves are found crowded and chained together, and 
are obviously being carried as cargo to be sold as slaves. 
Between these two classes of cases there are intermediate cases ; some of a doubtful 
character. It must rest with the officer to distinguish to what class any particular case 
belongs by a careful consideration of all the circumstances ; bearing in mind always 
this, that it is his duty to detain the vessel if he is reasonably satisfied that she is engaged 
in or equipped for the slave trade, but not otherwise. 
Officers must further observe that by the 388th Article of the Instructions, a right is 
reserved to the subjects of the Sultan of Zanzibar of transporting slaves within certain 
limits therein specified. That right, however, has by a special order of the Sultan, dated 
1863, been waived during the months of January, February, March, and April.