Case: THE ALASKA EXPLORATION COMPANY ET AL., SALVORS, v. THE UNITED STATES
Abbreviation: Alaska Exploration Co. v. United States
Decision Date: 1909-02-23
Docket Number: No. 22637
Citation: 44 Ct. Cl. 392
Volume: 44
Reporter: United States Court of Claims Reports
Court: United States Court of Claims
Jurisdiction: United States
Parties: THE ALASKA EXPLORATION COMPANY ET AL., SALVORS, v. THE UNITED STATES.
Judges: 
Pages: 392–397

Head Matter:
THE ALASKA EXPLORATION COMPANY ET AL., SALVORS, v. THE UNITED STATES.
[No. 22637.
Decided February 23, 1909.]
On the defendant's Motion.
The defendants’ steamship Rosecrans, laden with a valuable cargo, is aground in Alaskan waters. The tug Meteor renders salvage service for twenty-five hours in a sea of ice floes while the situation is critical and after the Rosecrans has been aground seventy-two hours. It is conceded that the Meteor rendered valuable services; the only question is as to the amount of salvage.
I.Tbe circumstances set fortli which should be considered by courts when determining the amount to be decreed for salvage.
II.Salvage is not viewed by admilalty courts as compensation in quantum meruit or as remuneration pro opere et labore, but as a reward for perilous service voluntarily rendered, and is given as an inducement to seamen and ethers to save life and property.
III. Public policy encourages mariners to render such services, and liberal allowances withdraw the temptation to embezzle and misappropriate the property saved.
IV. In estimating the amount of salvage in a given ease a court must exercise its best discretion in the light of the circumstances and rule above given.
The Reporter's statement of the case:
This case was tried at the last term of the court and judgment rendered for $18,000 in favor'of the claimant, without an opinion. Defendants move for a new trial.
The following are the facts of .the case as found by the court:
I. The Alaska Exploration Company, one of the claimants herein, is and was at all the times hereinafter mentioned a corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of the State of California, and during said time was the owner of the steam tug Meteor, of which said claimant, John S. Worth, was master, and the remaining said claimant's constituted the crew of said vessel.
II. At the time of the rendition of the salvage services hereinafter mentioned, the Roseerans was a steamship owned by the United States and operated under the authority and control of the War Department as a United States army transport for the transportation of officers, men, and stores, and was of the following dimensions: Gross tonnage, 2,976; net tonnage, 1,816; length, 326.4 feet; breadth, 38.2 feet; depth, 21 feet; and said vessel at the time of the rendition of said salvage services, together with her cargo, was of the value of $226,490.
III. On the 15th of June, 1900, the Roseerans was on a voyage to certain ports in Alaska with a large number of United States soldiers on board and was loaded with a considerable cargo of stores and supplies, and on the morning of that day ran aground at or near latitude 63° 8' north and longitude 164° 42' west, and was stuck fast in the mud and sand at that place. Shortly after the steamer O liarles Nelson came up to her and offered assistance and spent several hours in attempting to tow her from her precarious situation, and parted two rope hawsers and one wire hawser in such attempt, but failed tó rescue her, and went away. Not long after another steam vessel, the Valencia, came within hailing distance and' was asked for assistance. On approaching the Bosecrans the Valencia touched bottom in about 15 feet of water, backing off immediately, however, and after remaining about an hour and a half steamed to the south to avoid an ice pack. After ■ grounding, the Bosecrans was also spoken on the same morning by the steamship Morning Star, bound for St. Michael, Alaska, which came alongside and remained after the Nelson sailed until noon of that day, but did not attempt to render any assistance. On the afternoon of the 17th of June, and after the Bosecrans had been fast in the mud and sand for more than two days, the said steam tug Meteor came up within speaking distance and was hailed for assistance. In . the meantime the crew of the Bosecrans had lowered her boats and had constructed six or eight rafts in the water from the cargo of lumber stored on her deck and her forward hatches, upon all of which a considerable portion of her cargo was lightered.
After being hailed as before stated, the Meteor came up to the Bosecrans, and first rescued four of the above rafts and four or five of the ship’s boats which had been made fast to the ship by lines, but which had been cut off by floating ice and dragged into shoal water from 200 to 1,000 feet away. After rescuing the rafts and boats, the Meteor took the anchor of the Bosecrans, put it on a raft, and towed it off in a southwesterly direction from the ship and dropped it overboard to enable the Bosecrans to pull on it by working her own winch and steam capstan. Then the Meteor went alongside the Bosecrans, putting one hawser to her starboard quarter and another forward, and after pulling a short time, and with the assistance of the engines of the Bosecrans, started her afloat after having been aground for about three days. The Meteor was engaged in this rescue for about twenty-five hours. During this time she was in considerable danger from large floes of ice which, came down upon her from the windward and pounded her sides.
„ IV. During the time the Rosecrans was aground on the mud and sand, from the morning of the 15th of June, 1900, until she was rescued by the Meteor as aforesaid, she was in a position of great peril due to the combination of the shallow water about her carrying shifting sand which might bury her deeper and deeper, and the unusual menace of heavy ice floes and ice packs gathering about, liable in case of a heavy wind to come down upon her and crush in her sides.
V. The said tug Meteor was a steam tug of 88 tons register, with twin screws, 180 horsepower, and specially constructed with a view to rendering towage and salvage services to vessels needing such services, being of light draft and great power for her size, and was then and there of the value of $25,000. ’
Mr. John Sidney Webb for the claimant.
Mr. Frederick De C. Faust (with whom was Mr. Assistant Attorney-General John Q. Thompson) for the defendants.

Opinion:
Barney, J.,
delivered the opinion of the court:
This is a suit to recover salvage on account of services rendered by the steam tug Meteor to the United States transport Rosecrans while aground on the Yukon flats in Bering Sea in June, 1900. The Rosecrans was on a voyage to certain ports in Alaska, and had on board government supplies and quite a large body of United States troops. She ran aground on the morning of June 15, 1900, somewhere in the vicinity of the mouth of the Yukon Biver and remained fast in the mud and sand for about three days before being rescued by the Meteor.
That the Meteor rendered valuable services is conceded by the Government, and the only question in the case is as to how much salvage should be awarded.
" The relief of property from an impending peril of the sea by the voluntary exertions of those who are under no legal obligation to render assistance, and the consequent ulti mate safety of the property, constitute a case of salvage." (The Alphonso, 1 Curtis, 376; The Connemara, 108 U. S., 352.)
As to the amount of the award in salvage cases, the Supreme Court, in the case of The Blackwell (10 Wall., 1), said:
" Courts of admiralty usually consider the following circumstances as the main ingredients in determining the amount of the reward to be decreed for a salvage service: (1) The labor expended by the salvors in rendering the salvage service. (2) The promptitude, skill, and energy displayed in rendering the service and saving the property. (3) The value of the property employed by the salvors in rendering, the service and the danger to which such property was exposed. (4) The risk incurred by the salvors in securing the property from the impending peril. (5) The value of the property saved. (6) The degree of danger from which the property was rescued.
" Compensation as salvage is not viewed by the admiralty courts merely as pay, on the principle of a quantum meruit, or as a remuneration pro opere et labore, but as a reward given for perilous services, voluntarily rendered, and as an inducement to seamen and others- to embark in such undertakings to save life and property.
" Public policy encourages the hardy and adventurous mariner to engage in these laborious and sometimes dangerous enterprises, and with a view to withdraw from him every temptation to embezzlement and dishonesty the law allows him, in case he is successful, a liberal compensation." (Id., 13-14.)
It appears from the findings that the Bosecrans ran aground in the Bering Sea and was fast in the mud and sand for three days. She had lightered a large part of her cargo in the effort to get afloat and had not succeeded in that effort. While, fortunately, during this time the weather was favorable and there was no high wind, it is beyond question and is admitted that if a high wind had arisen the vessel would have been in great danger of destruction, with the probable loss of many lives and all of the property on board. This danger was greatly accentuated by the immense floes of ice which covered a large part of the sea in the vicinity.
' It is undoubtedly true that the Meteor was exposed to no great danger in rendering this service, and this fact is taken into consideration in making up the amount of salvage. It is also true, however, that the whole crew of the .Meteor worked gallantly for about twenty-five hours and this in a sea of immense ice floes, some of them coming down upon her from the windward and pounding her' sides. In fact, it can not be successfully denied that the whole situation was a critical one, and that gallant and valuable services were rendered by the crew of the Meteor which should be suitably rewarded. It is easy at this time and distance to say that the Roseomns would probably have succeeded in getting afloat in time without assistance. She had, however, been sticking in the mud in Arctic waters in the midst of floating ice for seventy-two hours, and we do not think it needs a seafaring-man to determine that this was a situation of peril, and that her rescuers are "entitled to much credit and a considerable salvage.
In estimating the amount of salvage to be allowed in a given case, the court must necessarily exercise its best discretion in the light of the rule above given. This rule is governed by a series of circumstances, all of which must be taken into consideration.
We have examinéd all of the cases upon this subject cited in the .briefs on both sides. They are instructive, but of necessity each case must largely be a law to itself.
The defendants' motion for a new trial is allowed; the former findings of fact and conclusion of law are vacated and set aside, and new findings of fact and conclusion of law this day filed in lieu thereof awarding judgment in favor of the claimant in the sum of $12,000.