Whenever any vessel, which shall have been built, purchased, fitted out in whole or in part, or held for the purpose of being employed in the commission of any piratical aggression, search, restraint, depredation, or seizure, or in the commission of any other act of piracy as defined by the law of nations, or from which any piratical aggression, search, restraint, depredation, or seizure shall have been first attempted or made, is captured and brought into or captured in any port of the United States, the same shall be adjudged and condemned to their use, and that of the captors after due process and trial in any court having admiralty jurisdiction, and which shall be holden for the district into which such captured vessel shall be brought; and the same court shall thereupon order a sale and distribution thereof accordingly, and at its discretion. (R.S. § 4296.) Editorial Notes Codification R.S. § 4296 derived from acts Mar. 3, 1819, ch. 77, § 4, 3 Stat. 513 ; Jan. 30, 1823, ch. 7, 3 Stat. 721 ; Aug. 5, 1861, ch. 48, § 1, 12 Stat. 314 .