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1903, ] MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. ees A SALVAGE CASE. United States District Judge Wanty of Grand Rapids, Mich., has just rendered a decision in a salvage case, that of the steamer Eliza H. Strong. The award is small, but the case is interesting as are all salvage cases and especially as the greater part of the award goes to the crew of the salving vessel. A statement of the case and the decision as given out by the court follows: The steamer Eliza H. Strong, bound for Buffalo, left Duluth Aug. 27, 1901, with a cargo of pine lumber, consisting of about 950,000 ft., 375,000 to 400,000 ft. of which was in the hull. It stopped at Washburn and picked up the schooner Commodore. At about 11 o'clock on the night of the 29th, the Strong sprang a leak, and in spite of all the efforts of the crew, the water gained on them so that the fires were put out and the deck load aft began to move, and the crew took to the small boats. Very shortly thereafter part of the deck load aft went overboard, carry- ing the cabin and smokestack with it. The crew boarded the Commodore, which sailed into Munising, arriving at about 2 o'clock the next morning. There being no night telegraph sery- ice at that nlace, and no tug stationed there, nothing could be done toward returning to the vessel that night, although this was the intent and purpose*of the captain. About 9:30 o'clock in the evening of Aug. 30, the steamer Mueller, laden with a cargo of lumber from Ashland to Chicago, discovered the Strong in her damaged condition, with a part of her deck load gone and sub- merged aft but her bow still out of water. After ascertaining that there was no one on board, a boat from the Mueller manned by the mate, Louis Larson, and seamen Ralph Higgie and John W. Bonner, went to the wreck, and Higgie got aboard the strong on the weather side, and the mate and Bonner boarded her from the lee side. These three men hauled a g-in., 100-fathom line from the Mueller onto the Strong, and the two seamen held it while the mate chopped away the bulwarks and they then fastened the line around the stem and anchors of the Strong. The steer- ing gear of the Strong was disabled, and as the men could do no good aboard of her, after making the line fast, they returned to the Mueller, which towed the Strong at the rate of 2% miles an hour to Munising bay, at the entrance of which, at about 9 o'clock. in the morning, they met the tug Smith, having aboard the master of the Strong and substantially all the members of his crew. The Smith had been employed to go out and bring the Strong into Munising. The Mueller declined to give up the Strong but continued with her in tow and put her on the beach in soft mud, where she was protected from the sea and lay in security in pos- session of the members of the crew of the Mueller until the mar- shal took possession of her under process in this cause. The libel was filed claiming salvage in the sum of $20,000, alleging the value of the Strong and her cargo to be $40,000. William H. Strong, as master and bailee of the ship and cargo, claimed them, and under the order of the court am appraisal was made, placing the value of the steamer at $4,500, and her cargo, consist- ing of 710,000 ft. of pine lumber, at $5,977.20, making the total $10,477.20. The Strong was not derelict, although the master and crew had abandoned her for the time being in order to go to Munising for the purpose of getting assistance to save the vessel and cargo. The service, however, was a salvage service, although it is colored by the fact that the Strong would have been rescued by her own crew and the tug Smith within a few hours of her rescue by the Mueller, when the service would have been one of towage under contract, instead of one of salvage, under what the salvors thought was a case of derelict. The claimant objects to paying a large sum for a service which could have been contracted for at ordi- nary rates if the Mueller had not appeared on the scene, while the libelants object to having their work viewed in the light of ordinary service, and claim that it was an arduous and hazardous undertaking, requiring the exercise of great skill and daring, and that the Strong and her cargo might have found the bottom of the lake or the beach but for the timely assistance of the Mueller. But on a review of numerous cases, which it is unnecessary to cite, it would seem that the award should not be materially dif- ferent on account of the ship being technically derelict or not. "Whether derelict or not the salvage award will not depend upon any fixed rule of proportion. It will be reached as in every other case of salvage--a generous recompense to the salvors, so as to encourage them and also to stimulate others. The service is the relief of property from an impending peril of the sea."--The Eleanor, 48 Fed., 842. It is easily conceivable that salvage might take place where the danger to property, the value of the prop- erty saved, the risk of life, skill, labor and duration of service required would be greater where the vessel was not actually derelict than in another case where it was. In either case the award should be based on the value of the property saved, the danger in which it was found, the risk of life and property re- quired in the rescue, the skill and labor required, and the time lost in the service, together with the value of the means employed and risked. In considering the question of the value of the property saved, I have come to the conclusion that the appraisal is about correct, although in the light of a successful voyage afterwards to Buffalo and the putting of the vessel in repair, the value of the vessel may now appear to be somewhat more, but that appearance comes from the successful issue of the undertaking to tow the vessel to Buffalo, and is based upon the cost of the repairs there. I find that the value of the Strong in her damaged condition and her cargo at the time she was beached was $10,477.20. Taking into consideration all of the testimony in the case, it does not seem to me that there was anything bordering on the heroic in rescuing this vessel. The fact that Higgie boarded the damaged ship on the weather side instead of approaching her on the lee side, where the mate and Bonner boarded her, and the holding of the line by the two seamen while the mate chopped away the bulwarks, would signify that the work could not have been so perilous as the argument of counsel might indicate. There was, of course, danger in boarding the vessel but not of that unusual character which would have deterred ordinary seamen from the undertaking. The Mueller was never in danger, as the only harm which could come to her would be the parting of the line, and thereby endangering her propeller wheel and steering gear, the danger of which was obviated by the slow rate of speed at which she handled the tow. The Mueller's expenses were $60 a day and the service took 15%4 hours besides 3 hours longer to reach the course on which her voyage lay. As I have said above, the award in cases of this kind should not be made on the basis of a percentage of the value of the property saved, but should be fixed, under all of the testimony in the case, at an adequate amount covering the service rendered under the circumstances, and I fix the salvage award in this case at the sum of $1,300. The mate and seamen have intervened and their proctor claims that the award should be divided by giving two-thirds to the crew and one-third to the ship, citing several cases in support of his claim. But on this branch of the case, as on the other, it seems to me that no hard and fast rule of proportion ought to prevail. It must occur to the least thoughtful mind that there are cases where the danger and work of the seaman might be trivial, and the expense to a great ocean liner in deviating from her course, delaying her voyage many days at enormous ex- pense, would make the rule contended for by the intervenors most unjust. This award should be paid into the registry of the court and distributed as follows: $500 to the owners of the Mueller; $100 to the captain; $100 to Larson, the mate; $100- each to Seamen Higgie and Bonner; and the balance to the captain, mate and each member of the crew in proportion to the wages respectively paid to them. Let a decree be entered ac- cordingly. AROUND THE GREAT LAKES. The Reid Wrecking Co. has purchased the tug Aldrich from Fowler & Smart of Port Huron for use in wrecking operations. The schooner Franz Sigel foundered in a gale off Stony Point, Lake Erie, last Saturday morning. The crew took to the rigging and were later taken off by the government survey boat Gen. Williams. Mr. Harvey D. Goulder, who has been in Europe for some time past,. will sail for home on the Campania, Aug. 8. Congress- man Burton, with whom Mr. Goulder spent most of the time abroad, will not return for several weeks. The tug Boscobel recently towed down to the head of the St. Clair river a raft for the Cleveland Sawmill Co. that contained 8,000,000 ft. of lumber. The raft was so large that it was found necessary to split it in sections for passage through the rivers. The steamer Waverly, belonging to the Gilchrist fleet, was sunk in collision with the steamer Turret Court 5 miles below . Harbor Beach, Mich., on Wednesday. It is claimed that the wheel chains of the Turret Court parted when the vessels were close together and before anything could be done the Turret Court had crashed into the Waverly. The Waverly was built in 1874. She had on board a cargo of coal. In six months ended July 1 the Sheriffs Mnfg. Co. of Milwau- kee booked orders for eighty-three propeller wheels. In one day this week the company shipped to Chicago a wheel of 9 ft. 10 in., on of 9 ft. 6 in. and one of 8 ft. 10 in. This company will soon reach the twenty-three-hundred mark in wheels made. Its busi- ness has been very good for several years past, as the average number of wheels shipped per year for the past five years is 140. The thing which Lake Michigan interests are now looking forward to is the race between the City of South Haven, owned by the Dunkley-Williams Line, and the Eastland, owned by the Michigan Steamship Co. The brush was expected one day this week but the firemen of the Eastland deserted her without warn- ing and the race consequently did not come off. Undoubtedly it will occur one of these days because these two boats could not even meet each other in the lake without a coniest of speed--at any rate not so long as the question of supremacy is in doubt. Capt. J. H. McLeod, who sailed the lake steamer H. B. Tuttle a few years ago, has been distinguishing himself in the Philip- pines. After leaving the lakes he went to China, returning dur- ing the Spanish war and going to Cuba. On account of the war conditions he met with advancement in the United States revenue cutter service, which he joined after his return from China, and is now in command in the Philippines of the coast guard steamer Palawan, which is one of the vessels of the so-called Philippino navy. The American, published in Manila, tells of an encounter which Capt. McLeod had with outlaws on one of the islands recently while landing a detachment of native scouts. "The cap- tain cleared ship for action," says the American, "and turned the scouts loose upon the malcontents. The party on shore were fairly-well entrenched and made a determined effort to oppose the landing, but Uncle Sam's forces handled themselves well and the outlaws' losses were heavy. The landing party was protected by a well-directed fire from a detachment that remained aboard the vessel. When the scouts gained the beach they found twelve of the enemy dead and the shore lined with wounded. Two of the scouts were wounded, one fatally."