Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-05-12


sponses to Calls For Help.
Salvage ON ships saved at sea by 9th
ers in the majority of cases is paid by the
underwriters, although the big steam
ship companies insure themselves. The
insurance companies think that board
of arbitration can more satisfactorily
adjust salvage claims than can the
courts. The word salvage, as defined by
that celebrated admiralty authority,
Roscoe. is 1.-THE reward which is earned
by those who have Voluntarily saved or
assisted in saving a ship or boat or their
apparel or any sort thereof or the lives
of persons at sea or ship, cargo or any
part thereof, from peril or wreck
from total loss.'' The last part of the
definition is a trifle puzzling.
In discussing the merits of salvage
cases it must be remembered that there
is no obligation, written or implied,
upon the master or crew of any vessel
TO heed signals of distress. Public opin-
ion alone enforces the idea that "a call
for help at sea must be obeyed." The
laws of salvage are merely framed to
encourage the saving of life and proper
ty on the deep. There is avarice in the
mariner as in landsmen, and the laws
are made to overcome and curb these
mercenary ambitions. For that reason
a master and his crew cannot expect
salvage for saving their own vessel. 1t
is the natural assumption in law, as
well as in fact, that they must do
everything they can to preserve their
charge and under an agreement with
the owners keep it from danger when
ever possible.
In salvage one of the first laws is that
the peril must be actual. The bargain
made in time of danger by the master
or agent of the imperiled craft with an
other volunteering aid need not of neces-
sity hold in court, and generally does
not. AS a rule the bargain is exorbitant
and made at a time when the victim
would be willing to guarantee the pay
ment of millions for proffered assist
ance. This point has been decided hum
dreds of times, the courts taking the
stand that the peril made an exor-
bitant bargain necessary.
AS general thing, the salvage award
is equal to about one-third the value in
the case of sailing craft and from
one-third to one-half in the case of
steamers. The owners of the salving
craft, whose money was wasted by de-
lay, wear and tear, are of course en-
titled to the bigger piece of the plum.
The master of the salvor gets about
twice the sum that his mate receives,
and the mate is paid something like
double the amount of each sailor.
Should the latter have been a MEM
Der of lifeboat crew used in running
hawsers or in going aboard as a prize
crew he and his mates are entitled to
an extra compensation. Naval officers
cannot claim salvage when the work
accomplished is in the direct line Of
their duty.
In the case of a abandoned vessel
there is peculiar law as applied to
ownership. No matter where the dere
lict be found and towed or assisted in
by q prize crew or otherwise the court
holds that she is still the property of
her original owners, although abandon
ed by her crew, their agents, and that
no effort has been made by them to re-
cover her. 1t sounds peculiar to the
average mariner, but it's the law.
To mako a successful salvage claim it
is necessary that the property must be
actually saved and saved by those claim
ing to be salvors. In other words, the
salvage services must be rendered by
persons not bound by contract to render
them. II the mariner or other encoun-
tiers the danger or misfortune or dam
age which might possibly expose the
ship to destruction unless assistance is
rendered and does all he can to save the
vessel, and his services tend in some de-
gree to save or preserve her, compensa-
ton will be awarded him, although the
vessel is mainly preserved by other
means.
The longest time that any one steam
er has been at sea with disabled ma
chinery before reaching port was ~
days. This was the United States cor
yette Iroquois in 1890. She was bound
to Samoa from Honolulu, and had only
seven days rations left when port was
reached. In 1897 the steamer Indralema
was flowed into St. Thomas after hav-
ing been at sea for AZ days. The Glas-
Cow steamer Strathness, after drifting
32 days out of the range of steamers,
was towed into st. Michael's in Janu-
airy, 1897, by the British steamer Han
nah M. Bell. Another Strath, the
Strathnevis, drifted helplessly on the
Pacific for two months and over in
1895, and was finally towed into Puget
sound. The Disptach in 1864 was out
81 days with crippled machinery, and
four years ago the British cruiser Ca
lypso broke down 1000 miles from port
and sailed in unaided, much to the de-
light of the dwindling band of naval
experts who maintain that every war
ship ought TO be provided with ample
sail power.
The owners of those ships that were
Obliged to drift for weeks, and in sew
eral cases for months, would not have
found fault with the question Of salvage
had helping hand come along-at
least there would have been no COM
plant just then.-New York Mail and
Express.