Mutiny, Then Plunder

A sailor served on a privateer licensed by a South American government. He and other crew mutinied and took over the ship. They then seized a second armed vessel by force. With no commission or papers of any kind, they cruised the ocean and robbed a Spanish merchant ship. The federal law made 'piracy as defined by the law of nations' a capital crime, but did not spell out what piracy was. The defence argued the law was too vague to convict anyone. The jury found the facts and left it to the judges to say whether this was piracy.