In February 1779, Col. Paul Revere, then serving at Castle Island in Boston Harbor, stopped the British ship Minerva and seized firearms and merchandise as enemy contraband. His actions precipitated a contest over the ownership of those stores when the Minerva’s commander, Capt. William Dunlap, claimed that the British ship was protected by a flag of truce because of its participation in a prisoner exchange mission. Col. Thomas Crafts of the Regiment of Artillery also claimed a portion of the contraband. The trial was heard before the Maritime Court in Boston in March 1779 and the Superiour Court of Middlesex County in April. The Superiour Court declared that the goods were not protected and that confiscation was legal. Revere and the men on duty received one-third of the proceeds from the confiscation; the Massachusetts government claimed the remaining two-thirds. Colonel Crafts’s claim was not supported.