The Emily St. Pierre, the British ship recaptured from its U.S. Navy prize crew, arrives in Liverpool

On March 18, 1862, the British sailing vessel Emily St. Pierre had been seized by the U.S.S. John Adger and taken as a prize to be sailed to Philadelphia. Three days later the British captain, 47 year-old Scot William Wilson, and the only two remaining crewmen aboard, his cook and a German steward, recaptured the ship from its twelve man American prize crew by stealth and sailed to Liverpool in England, arriving there to British celebration on April 21, 1862. This touched off a brief international incident concerning the legality of the recapture.  (By John Osborne)