1  Op.,  61,  Le©,  1796.
If  foreign  sovereigns  purchase  ships  in  the  United  States,  and  load
them  with  provisions  for  the  ase  of  their  fleets  or  armies,  those  ship^
are  to  be  considered  as  commercially  employed  ^  and  if  they  be  not  ci
tacked  to  the  naval  or  military  expeditions,  as  part  thereof,  in  accom
panying  the  fleet,  or  closely  following  the  army  from  place  to  place,  for
the  purpose  of  furnishing  them  with  supplies,  there  can  be  no  pretext
for  restraining  American  sailors  from  hiring  on  boanl  of  them  for  the
purpose  of  gaining  a  support  in  their  customary  way  of  occupation.
Ibid.
A  citizen  of  a  neutral  nation  has  a  right  to  render  his  personal  service
as  a  sailor  on  board  of  any  vessel  whatever  employed  in  mere  commerce,
though  owned  by  either  of  the  belligerent  powers,  or  the  subjects  a-
citizens  of  either,  and  nothing  hostile  can  be  imputed  to  such  condact.
IHd.
To  same  general  effect  see  4  Op.,  336;  IT.  S.  v.  Skinner,  2  Wheel.,  C.  C,  23S;
Stongbton  v.  Taylor,  2  Paine,  655.
(6)  Or  to  sell  or  purchask  ships.
§  393.
'^  If  vessels  have  been  built  in  the  United  States  and  afterwards  sold
to  one  of  the  belligerents  and  converted  into  vesselsof-war,  our  citi-
zens engaged  in  that  species  of  manufacture  have  been  equally  ready
to  build  and  sell  vessels  to  the  other  belligerent.  In  point  of  fact  both
belligerents  have  occasionally  supplied  themselves  with  vessels-of-war
from  citizens  of  the  United  States.  And  the  very  singular  case  has
occurred  of  the  same  ship-builder  having  sold  two  vessels,  one  to  toe
King  of  Spain  and  the  other  to  one  of  the  southern  republics,  wbicU
vessels  afterwards  met  and  encountered  each  other  at  sea.
