Liberty

Posted by Daryl Beattie on Wednesday 18th of May 2022 23:55

From what I understand, the ship was taken from owner John Hancock on dubious grounds. At the time, the two customs who boarded the ship the night it arrived said no cargo was off loaded,and Hancock paid the duties on the wine he imported that was found. But a month later one of them changed his story, and said he was forced to overlook the unloading...and thus the ship, which had returned to Boston, and it's new cargo were confiscated and illegally towed away from port. While the case against the ship was found "proved", the case against John Hancock and 5 others was dropped, (as there never was evidence that there had been more wine, it being assumed there was because the ship could hold more). It may have hurt Hancock that previously he had snubbed the Governor's social function or that he had removed a customs official by force from illegally searching another ship the month before, as it is noted that the Governor got 1/3, and the custom official who changed his story a month later got another 3rd of the value of the ship and cargo.