NON-COMMIBSIONBI>    OAPTOBS,   BTC. 859

eitiher  by  aooident  or  design,  diverts  the  coarse  of  an  enemy,  and  by  so
doing  occasions  her  Captare  by  a  totally  distinct  force,  should  be  con-
sidered as  a  Joint  Oaptor.(r)

GOOXCIY. It  is  certainly  true  that  darkness  preventing  sight  will  J^
not  universally  exclude  from  a  right  to  share ;  nor  can  the  rule  be  laid
down  universally  the  other  way;  for  there  may  not  in  every  case  be  evi-
dence to  show  the  proximity  to  the  scene  of  action. Where  it  can  be
shown  that  the  asserted  Joint  Captor  was  in  sight  when  the  darkness
came  on,  and  that  she  continued  steering  the  same  coarse  by  which
she  was  before  nearing  the  price,  and  that  the  prize  itself  also  continued
the  same  course,  it  amounts  almost  to  demonstration  that  the  ships  would
have  seen,  and  been  seen  by  each  other,  at  the  time  of  Captare,  if  dark*
ness  had  not  '''intervened,  and,  in  such  case,  she  ought  to  be  let  r^ij^qen
in  to  the  benefit  of  Joint  CaptuTe.(«)  ^        ->

CCCXCY. But  if  the  ship  is  lost  sight  of  in  the  night,  and  the  Capture  -i^
is  afterwards  made  at  such  a  distance  that  the  asserted  Joint  Captor
would  not  at  the  time  of  Capture  have  been  in  sight  even  if  it  had  been
day,  the  claim  of  Joint  Capture  cannot  be  sustained. Lord  Stowell  has
decided  that  where  a  ship  is  lost  sight  of  in  the  night,  the  pursuit  of  that
ship  cannot  properly  be  denominated  a  chase ;  it  is  a  conjectural  pursuit
only ;  it  is  a  feeling  about  in  the  dark,  a  search  and  inquiry,  but  no
chase. 