Case ID: f_163/html/0425-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "WADDITT, District Judge", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

THE CARROLL. THE NANSEMOND. THE ROANOKE.
    (District Court, E. D. Virginia.
    July 30, 1908.)
    Salvage — Rescue of Barges Adrift in Gale in Chesapeake Bay — Right to Salvage Compensation.
    The tug Dauntless, with a barge in tow, navigating Chesapeake Bay at night in a gale on the way from Baltimore to Norfolk, was signaled for assistance by another tug having five barges in tow. Anchoring her own barge in Hampton Roads, the Dauntless then found that four of the other tug’s barges liad gone adrift, and was asked to find them and take off their crews. She found three of them anchored in mid-channel a mile east of Thimble Eight; the other having been sunk ami her crew saved by the light keeper. The three were in great peril with the sea washing over them and their masters and crews in fear of losing their lives. At their request the Dauntless undertook to tow them, to safety, and did so, taking first one on which there were a woman and a child, then the other two. The service commenced at 11:30, and continued until 9 in the morning, during which time weather conditions improved but- little and was attended by considerable danger to the crew who were obliged to go on board the barges. JJelO,, that the .service was not one of towage, but of salvage, and one of merit, and. that the Dauntless was entitled to an award from the one first rescued. equal to 12% per cent, of the value of the vessel, cargo, and freight money and an award of 7% per cent, from each of the others.
    [Ed. Note. — For cases in point, see Cent. Dig. vol. 43, Salvage, §§ 80-83.
    For other definitions, see Words and Phrases', vol. 7, pp. 6312-6315; vol. 8, p. 7794.
    Awards in federal courts, see note to The Lamington, 30 C. C. A. 280.]
    In Admiralty. Suit to recover for salvage services.
    This libel was filed by the master of the tug Dauntless, in behalf of himself and crew and all persons interested as salvors, against the barges Carroll, Nansemond, and Roanoke, to recover for alleged salvage services rendered them and against their cargoes and freight money, under the following circumstances:
    On the 25th day of January, 1908, the Dauntless, from Baltimore, had in tow the schooner Malcolm B. Seavey for the capes of Virginia, and the barge Pocomoke for the port of Norfolk,- and arrived at the Middle Grounds in Chesapeake Ba/, where she anchored the barge at 3:30 p. m. of January 26th, thep proceeded to Cape Henry and dropped the schooner, returned to the barge, and picked her up again about 7:30 p. m. About that time the wind became very heavy from the south southwest, blowing a gale, with the sea'running very high, causing the tug and tow to labor considerably, retarding her progress so that by 10 o’clock p. m. she had only reached a point halfway between Thimble Light and Old Point. About this time the Dauntless observed a tug and tow of five barges proceeding into Hampton Roads, laboring very heavily in the wind and sea then prevailing, and, as the Dauntless was passing, a signal of four whistles was blown by the other tug, which afterwards proved to be the Bohemia, indicating need of assistance, which signal was answered by the Dauntless, and she at once proceeded to anchor her barge in Hampton Roads, and returned to the relief of the distressed vessels. She met the tug Bohemia just below Old Point Light, about 11:30 p. m., with only one barge in tow; the remaining four barges having parted their hawser and gone adrift. The captain of the Bohemia requested the Dauntless to proceed to the barges to take off their crews, and render such assistance as was needed, while the Bohemia continued with her one barge to Norfolk.- As the Dauntless passed Thimble Light, signals were sounded indicating that one of the barges had been lost, and the crew was saved by the lighthouse keeper, as the Dauntless after-wards learned. The Dauntless then proceeded down and found the remaining barges, the Carroll, Nansemond, and Roanoke, anchored near midchannel, about a mile east of Thimble Light, all of them awash with the heavy seas continually breaking over them, laboring heavily at their anchors, and their masters- and crews in great fear of losing their lives. The Dauntless spoke the barges in turn, and was earnestly besought by the masters on each to take the barges in tow immediately, as they were in danger of sinking. The master of the Dauntless, ascertaining that the Roanoke had on board the master’s wife, who was in great fear, and hysterical, at great peril to his own tug and those on board took this barge in first, nearly an hour being consumed in the endeavor to get a line fast to her, on account of the heavy gale and high seas, and she was taken to and anchored safely off Lambert’s Point January 27th, about 2:30 a. m., the distance being some 15 miles. The Dauntless then returned immediately to the Carroll and Nansemond, reaching them about 4:30; the weather conditions remaining all this time practically the same, though with some slight moderation. When the Dauntless reached the Nansemond, the captain of the barge informed the master of the tug that he had sprained his back and needed assistance to get up his anchor, and two of the crew of the tug, after some dangerous maneuvers, jumped from the tug on board the Nansemond, and got up her anchor, when the hawser of the Nansemond was passed to the Carroll and made fast, and the Dauntless passed her line to the Carroll, and, after the Carroll had succeeded in getting her anchor partly up, the tug proceeded to tow the two barges into port; but before reaching Old Point Light she had to stop in order to get the Carroll’s anchor entirely up, so that it would not catch in and. fortl the cable. This was about 6 a. m. of the 27th, and about this time a severe gale from the northwest broke over the tug and barges, making navigation very difficult; but the Dauntless finally brought both barges up to Lambert’s Toint, and anchored them safely about 8:30 of the same morning.
    Floyd Hughes, for libelant.
    Hughes & Tittle, for respondents.
   WADDITT, District Judge

(after stating the facts as above). The fact of this being a proper case for an allowance for salvage is manifest. The claim is very much stronger against the Roanoke than the other barges, because at 12 or 1 o’clock, when the barges Carroll and Nansemond engaged the Dauntless to take them in tow, they were all certainly in desperate condition, and the only reason the service was not rendered to the Carroll and Nansemond first was that the Roanoke was apparently in the greater distress, necessitating that she should be taken in immediately, and no higher service could be rendered than saving the woman and child on the Roanoke. While the Dauntless was not exposed to very great danger, there was undoubledly some, and the service she performed was meritorious in everything that she did for an abandoned tow. The Bohemia had abandoned her tow — for what reason the court does not know — and one of the barges so set adrift sank. No denial is made by the master of the Bohemia of the truthfulness of Capt. Scott’s statements that the captain of the Bohemia relied on him to do what he himself should have done to have rescued this scattered tow, which certainly at that time was in very great danger. That all the barges were not swamped, as might have been expected, was very fortunate, because they were anchored in a very exposed placq, with the weather such as it was on that occasion. As to the promptness of the service and the circumstances under which it was rendered, it commenced at 12 o’clock midnight, and ended about 9 o’clock the following morning; the Roanoke being taken at 12 o’clock at night, and the other barges at 4 o’clock in the morning, in the month of January, in the roughest and worst kind of weather. The court does not think that the undertaking was either intended as, or contemplated to he, a towing service. The barges were not looking for a tug for towing purposes in that vicinity at that time of the morning. The explanation of the barge masters that they thought the Dauntless was rendering the service for the Bohemia cannot be accepted. The facts do not sustain that view in any aspect; but certain it is the service was twice tendered and availed of and rendered each time. The masters and crews on the several barges were anxious and insistent to be taken in at 12 o’clock, but at 4 o’clock, when the force of the storm had considerably abated, they were not quite so uneasy. They could have refused the services of the tug on both occasions, but were careful not to do so, and, on the contrary, solicited and accepted aid in their then dire distress, and the court thinks they acted wisely, having regard to the lives of the people on board and the value of the barges and cargoes, in employing the Dauntless to bring them into a safe harbor. They got the first tug available to bring them in, and they ought to pay for the service rendered, which was unquestionably a salvage service of a high order of merit.

After careful consideration, the court thinks that the libelants have proved that they are entitled to a salvage award, and that an allowance of I2y% per cent, of the value of the Roanoke and of her freight money and cargo values should be made, and for the Carroll and Nansemond allowances of 7y2 per cent, each, including their respective freight moneys and cargo values; and, counsel having agreed that the Roanoke and her freight money and cargo was worth $11,000. 12y¡ per cent, of which is $1,375, and that the value of the Carrolí and her freight money and cargo was $G,OO0, 7% per cent, of which is $450, and that the value of the Nansemond and her freight money and cargo was $7,625, 7% per cent, of which is $501.87, doth allow to the libelant, as against the Roanoke, the sum of $1,375, against the Carroll $450, and against the Nansemond $501.87, and decrees may be entered in favor of the libelant for these sums awarded respectively against the barges named, their cargoes and freight money.