The Steamship Tiger (International Commission of Inquiry)

Facts

On 1 May 1917, the Norwegian steamer the Tiger, sailed from Agua Amarga bound for Cardiff carrying a cargo of iron ore. The steamer sailed within the three mile limit of the territorial waters of Spain until Cape Finisterre where her course brought her closer to land. On 7 May 1917, when the steamer was approximately three-quarters of a marine mile from Cape Machichaco, the crew observed the periscope of a German submarine. The periscope disappeared after three minutes and the Tiger sailed towards shore. The submarine surfaced and fired shots, first from rifles and then from cannons, and four shells hit the vessel. The crew of the Tiger abandoned the ship, taking refuge in a lifeboat. Five German sailors boarded the steamer, placed bombs on her, and in order to prevent the vessel from being carried closer to shore, sailed the steamer beyond the three-mile limit where the bombs were detonated and the vessel sunk.

The Spanish Government on 15 May 1917, through its Ambassador in Berlin, protested the violation of its sovereignty and demanded the punishment of the submarine's crew and reparation of the damages. An exchange of diplomatic correspondence regarding the incident ensued, the German Government proposed submitting the matter to an international fact-finding commission, and the Agreement under which the Commission was constituted was worked out in an exchange of letters between May 1917 and August 1918. Ultimately, the Parties agreed upon a Commission constituted under the Hague Convention of 1907 with Copenhagen as the seat of the Commission and the President of the Tribunal appointed by the King of Denmark. The Parties agreed from the outset that only a question of fact need be answered and that the results of the inquiry would be final and binding. If the Tiger was found to have been arrested within Spanish territorial waters, that finding would settle both the factual issue and establish prima facie a violation of international law. The Parties agreed to the rules of procedure contained in Part III of the 1907 Convention excepting Article 34. They agreed in its stead that the Report of the Commission would not be read at a public meeting. They also waived the application of Article 35, agreeing in advance to accept the decision of the Commission.

Questions submitted to the Commission

The Commission was asked to decide whether the Tiger had been sailing inside the three mile limit of the territorial waters of Spain when the steamer was pursued, fired upon, arrested, and sunk.

Report of the Commission

The Commission concluded in a Report signed by all three members (to which the German member, Captain Horn, attached a separate opinion disputing whether Spain had proved sufficiently violation of its territorial waters) that the Tiger had been pursued, and arrested by the German submarine within three miles of the Spanish coast but was sunk outside of territorial waters.

Case information