belonging to the fire department of Brooklyn arrived at about the same time. For a few minutes before, there had been a small and weak stream thrown down the companion way by the watchman on the dock, who had connected a hose with the dock hydrant. The fire boat Seth Low also came in shortly after the America, and took a position across the bow of the lighter, from which she operated with her hose. About the time that the Seth Low came, or shortly after, the foreman of the fire department, finding that the America's hose was not from a fire department boat, ordered it shut off, and that the America should remove from the lighter, threatening to cut her hose and lines if this order was not obeyed. The hose was accordingly removed to the America; but she remained alongside the lighter.

Afterwards the fire department finding itself unable to extinguish the fire, made use of the America as a landing from which to burst open the door in the gangway on the outer or starboard side of the lighter, in order to remove to the America some of the cargo which blocked up the lighter, and thus open up a more direct approach to the fire. The same was also done on the port side. Being still unable, however, to extinguish the fire, the department finally ordered that the lighter be filled with water and sunk; whereupon the America's hose was again used in pumping in water for a time, until the lighter began to settle down, when she drew away. The lighter soon after sank and the fire was thus extinguished. Most of the cargo that was at first put upon the America was put back upon the lighter before she sank, under orders of the fire department. A few packages of lard remained on the America, which were afterwards delivered to the owners. The value of the barge was $35,000 and of the cargo $20,000. The value saved was, of the barge, $17,000; of the cargo, $8,000.

It is to be regretted that there should be any such jealousies between the fire department on land and tugs rendering assistance on the water, as should interfere with the speediest possible relief to vessels in flames. Cases before me are not infrequent in which, under threats of violence, tugs rendering assistance are ordered to desist by the fire department on shore, under its claim of exclusive control; and this, not because the help of the tugs may not be timely and useful, but from an arbitrary assumption of control of the matter by the department. It would be a great misfortune if, through liability to such interference and exclusion, tugs having efficient appliances for extinguishing fires about the slips or docks, should become less prompt, as would be likely, to go to the relief of vessels on fire with all possible speed. The first moments are the most important of all. Cases are frequent when the tugs are not only more quickly on the ground, but are better able to get at the fire; and emergencies often arise, requiring the removal of the vessel aflame, or of other vessels threatened with danger, in which the fire department can do little or nothing. Common interest and the public safety, therefore, require that all due encouragements be maintained for the most prompt and efficient assistance in cases of fire on the water, from the tugs of the harbor, as well as from the fire department. Both ought to co-operate, without unnecessary interference from each

other. If in the cases of vessels moored to the land, the fire department and police may assume control so far as to prevent disorder or inefficient work, this power does not rightfully extend to the exclusion of efficient help from tugs previously engaged. In this court, therefore, where a tug has proceeded with dispatch to the scene of the fire, upon a recognized signal for help from tugs, as in this case, and has rendered valuable assistance, her claim to salvage will not be allowed to suffer disparagement, through any arbitrary and improper interference by the fire department, which prevented an uninterrupted continuance of her aid until completion of the salvage work.

In the present case, the event shows that the action of the fire department was not only arbitrary, but grossly ill judged and erroneous; and that both the lighter and her cargo have suffered from the unwarrantable interference and threats which caused the America for a time to suspend playing with her hose. Her work did not in the least interfere with the work of the fire department. The event was unfortunate. The fire department could not put out the fire without finally sinking the lighter, whereby less than half the value of the vessel and cargo was saved. The work was a continuous one from the time the America arrived. She is entitled to at least her proportion of the whole salvage work considered as one undertaking. See The Henry R. Tilton, 53 Fed. Rep. 139. She was more or less occupied on the work for about three hours, though the actual playing of her hose was, through the interference of the fire department, much less than that. But she responded with alacrity to the lighter's signal, and her claim is meritorious. I award her $400. Of this amount, two thirds will go to the owners; and of the remaining third, $25 is allowed to the mate or pilot, who was in charge, and the residue to the mate and other men on board of the America in proportion to their wages.

Decree accordingly, with costs.

THE SIR WILLIAM ARMSTRONG.

MERRITT WRECKING ORGANIZATION v. THE SIR WILLIAM ARM

STRONG.

(District Court, E. D. Virginia. August 17, 1892.)

1. SALVAGE-COMPENSATION-ENFORCEMENT OF CONTRACT.

A steamship bound to Havre from New Orleans, with a large cargo of cotton, stranded on the shoals 20 miles north of the Virginia capes during a storm. Intelligence of her situation and request for assistance were sent by a passing steamer to Norfolk, the nearest port. In response, libelants, who were considered the best equipped wreckers on the Atlantic coast, sent out two barges, with a total capacity of 1,800 bales, two large wrecking steamers, and three or four tugs chartered for the purpose, the whole being manned by a force of between 90 and 100 men. On arrival the stranded ship was found to have sunk 6 or 8 feet in the sand, with several feet of water in her compartments, in a helpless condition and a dangerous position. A salvage contract in writing was entered into with libelants by the captain, after consultation with the chief mate and engineer, and with the approval of all three, which, in substance, provided that the salvors, if successful, should have 25 per cent. of the value of the dry cotton saved, 40 per cent. of the value of the wet cotton, and 20 per cent. of the appraised value of the ship. The cost to the salvage company of the enterprise, after it was completed, was over $20,000. The work of the salvors was entirely successful. The ship and all the cotton, amounting to v.53F.no.1-10

5,271 bales, were the owners of the tion was offered. be enforced.

2. SAME-DURESS.

landed safely in port. Three days after the contract was made steamship were notified of its terms by the captain, and no objecHeld, that the contract was reasonable, fair, and just, and should

A contract for saving a ship, made out at sea by salvor with master and mates of the vessel, while the ship is in extreme peril, helpless, and in momentary danger of destruction, is not void as made under duress, where there is no intent on the part of the salvor to extort unjust compensation, and the terms are fair, and the amount promised in accordance with awards for like services by the admiralty courts. 3. SAME.

The defense on the part of the captain that the contract, by agreement, was to be regarded as only a matter of form, and that the compensation of the salvors was to be determined by the National Board of Underwriters, cannot avail in the face of the fact that a week after its date, in a letter to the wrecking company, he complains of the delay in "carrying out your contract," and in view of the further facts that during the whole progress of the work of salving the ship and cargo, embracing a period of 17 days, no objection was made or any intimation given that the contract was regarded as a matter of form.

4 SAME-APPORTIONMENT BETWEEN SHIP AND CARGO.

The ship's net tonnage was 1,386. The cotton saved constituted in weight 1,800 tons, which was to be handled in about 5,000 parcels of 489 pounds, each parcel or bale requiring to be handled three times. Held, that in the rates stipulated in the contract no discrimination was made in favor of the ship.

In Admiralty. Libel by the Merritt Wrecking Organization against the steamship Sir William Armstrong to recover on a contract for salvage. Decree for libelants.

Sharp & Hughes, for libelants.

Richard Walke, for respondents.

HUGHES, District Judge. About midday of January 19, 1892, the British steamship Sir William Armstrong, McKenzie, master, on a voyage from New Orleans to Havre, was driven in by heavy wind and sea, and stranded in the shoals which lie off Cobb's island, 20 miles north of the Virginia capes. Cobb's island is one of a series of large sandbars which line the Virginia coast in that region, being 6 or 7 miles out from the mainland. In very high seas nearly the entire island is swept by the waves. Shoals are formed east of it, and extend 4 and more miles into the ocean. Their bottom is very "lumpy" and of varying depths. Occasional inlets pervade them here and there, one of which extends inward along the southern end of the island, and a very irregular one leaves this, just southeast of the island, and runs in an ill-defined and crooked channel northeasterly out to sea. These inlets form, with the ocean, an irregular triangle, on the outer side of which the Sir William Armstrong stranded. She lay eastward of the southern end of the island, about 3 miles out to seaward, 20 miles from the Virginia capes, 50 miles from Norfolk. She stuck fast in 7 feet of water. She had on a cargo of 5,559 bales of cotton, and drew 19 feet aft and 14 feet or more forward. Her net tonnage was 1,386, and her gross 2,179. Her length was 300 feet, her breadth of beam 37 feet, and her depth of hull 24 She is a compartment steamer, built with water-tight bulkheads between four cargo holds and the engine rooms, and between the cargo bunkers and main deck. There are four freight and one engine room compartment, the latter in the center of the ship. Telegraph wires were all down, and intelligence could not be conveyed to Norfolk of her

situation until the night of the 20th, when it was sent by a steamer bound in to Norfolk from New York. The libelants promptly sent out their wrecking steamer Rescue to look after and give assistance to the Armstrong. The Rescue arrived out at about 3 P. M. on the 21st. Between the 19th and this arrival the steamer had discharged a large quantity of coal, pumped out her ballast tanks, run a hawser and anchor out to northeast, and before the coming of the Rescue had worked her engines and set her sails, for the purpose of heaving on this anchor. In this effort the steamer had floated and backed herself off; but something had then given way, and she had fallen back and grounded again, the sea being very heavy. Later efforts had failed to move her, and on the morning of the 20th she had hoisted signals of distress, and in the afternoon had sent a message in for assistance, as before stated. The weather was freezing, and the sea breaking over the ship on the 20th; during which time she consumed all her rockets and distress signals without receiving any response. Finally she continued to signal by means of flare lights. During this day the crew, despairing of saving the ship, had petitioned the captain for leave to go ashore; but this purpose was relinquished in consequence of an abatement of wind and sea in the latter part of the day. Soundings around the ship showed a depth of 7 feet at low water. She had sunk several feet in the sand, witnesses varying from 3 to 10 feet in opinion, and was listed 4 or 5 feet to starboard. During these occurrences she had lost her stern post and rudder, and some 16 feet of keel, and, as afterwards appeared, her bottom had been considerably injured.

When the Rescue arrived, she was found to have 3 feet of water in her No. 3 compartment, and 24 feet in No. 4, both these holds being aft." She was most probably sunk 6 to 8 feet in the sand. The ship was helpless, and in a very dangerous position. The testimony of experienced wreckers who were examined is that it is much more dangerous for a vessel to be stranded 3 or 4 miles out among shoals than on a beach of the mainland. Lines cannot be run from them to a place of safety. Wrecking steamers cannot be got near them. Barges or surfboats have to be used. Risk of many casualties has to be run in stormy weather, and in case of accident the lives of all on board a ship are beyond the usual chances of rescue. The Armstrong was 10 miles from an inaccessible part of the mainland, 20 miles from the Virginia capes, 40 miles from Hampton roads, and 50 from Norfolk. The task of saving her was undertaken by the Merritts, who are the most completely equipped wreckers on the Atlantic coast. Their entire plant represents a capital

have an

of $600,000. The Merritts themselves, and most of their men, experience in wrecking, as a profession, of a quarter of a century. Capt. Coley, their chief manager, and Capt. Nelson, his assistant, are known to this court as men of the highest experience and skill in the wrecking business. These two men were deputed, in their respective ranks, as managers of the enterprise of saving the Armstrong and her valuable cargo. The property put at the disposal of these two managers of this enterprise was upwards of $200,000 in value. The libel states that the number of men employed under them was between 90 and 100. The

cost to the Merritts of the enterprise after it was completed was found to have exceeded $20,000.

Until recently, when cotton ships stranded and became subjects of salvage enterprises, it was the practice to lighter the cotton bales into surfboats, draw these by lines across the breakers to steamers lying in the offing, and send them into port; or, if the condition of the weather and sea permitted, schooners were brought alongside the stranded ships, and, when loaded with cotton, were taken in tow by outlying steamers and brought into port. The Merritts have devised, as a substitute for surfboats, very capacious barges of very light draught, propelled by their own steam engines and machinery, for the purpose of lightering stranded cotton steamers. Two of this class of barges were used in taking cotton off the Armstrong, viz., the Seymour, with capacity for 700 bales, and the Haggerty, with capacity for 1,100 bales. They employed in the same service their own two wrecking steamers, the Rescue and the Merritt, built for that specific business. These large steamers assisted and remained in the vicinity of the Armstrong while the service was going on; and three or four smaller tugboats, chartered by the Merritts for the occasion, were employed in towing the two barges, respectively, with their loads, from the Armstrong to Norfolk, and in bringing them back again.

On the arrival of the Rescue near the Armstrong, on the afternoon of the 21st, Capt. Coley went aboard. They were jettisoning cotton from the ship at the time, and had thrown about 220 bales overboard. Capt. Coley at once advised a discontinuance of this work, and it ceased. After conferring with Capt. McKenzie, they agreed upon the terms on which Capt. Coley would undertake the saving of the ship and cargo, which were put in the form of a written contract, which will hereafter be considered. In substance, the contract provided that the salvors, in the event of success, should have 25 per cent. of the value of the dry cotton saved, 40 per cent. of the value of the wet cotton, and 20 per cent. of the value of the ship. This contract was entered into by Capt. McKenzie after his chief mate and chief engineer had been called into consultation, and with the concurrence and approval of all three.

When Capt. Coley first got to the Armstrong, he did not expect to save her. The reason was, as he says, that she had water in her; that she was on a shoal out some miles from land, where barges would have to be used, where steamers could not come near her, and where it would be tedious labor to get barges alongside, in consequence of the tide running across the shoals. The ship was high up out of water on the shoal, and much harder to be got afloat than if she had been on a beach nearer firm land. If she leaked, the pumps would be of little use after she got to rolling, as the loose cotton in the ship would get into and choke the pumps, and this ship had a very unusual quantity of cotton to handle before she could be saved. Capt. Nelson says:

"I was scared of my life all the time I was there. It is a dangerous shoa, and about three miles from land, and a low, sandy beach, and if that ship went down you would perish before you could get to land. If the ship broke up. there was no protection for the men; they couldn't get anywhere."