The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

J Ihe Marine Record. Marine Z Becord., Published Every Cherstey at 144 Superior Street, (Leader Building) Cleveland, O. A. A. POMEROY, EDITOR AND PROP’R TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION: One year, postage paid... Six months, postage paid Invariably in advance. +++$2,00 1.00 THE MARINE RECORD can be found for sale by the following news dealers: CLEVELASD, O.—G. F. Bowman, corner of Pear] and Detroit Streets. Evans & Van Epps, Superior street, Cleve'and, R. A. Castner, 254 Detroit s‘reet, Cleveland. ASHTABULA HARBOR, O.—C, Large. CHICAGO, ILL.—Joseph Gray, 9 West Ran- dolph Street, CHICAGO, ILL.—August Semper, 345 Noble Street. BUFFALO, N. Y.—A. C. Brideson, Michigan Swing Bridge. Also, Miss McCabe, Elk Street, near Ohio. DULUTH, MINN.—C. F. Johnson, 117 West Superior Street. MARQUETTE, MICH.—J. A. Vannier. ESCANABA, MICH.—Wm. Godley. PORT HURON, MICH.—G. H. Mann. WASHBURN, WJS,—John A. Jacobs. SARNIA, ONT --D. McMasters. ST. CLAIR FLATS, MICH, — MeNiff & Son, Subscribers and others are respectfully invited to use the columns of the MARINE RECORD for the discussion of pertinent topics. Entered at the Post Office at Cleveland as second- class mail matter. CLEVELAND, OHIO, THURSDAY, JULY 1. THE QUESTION OF INSURANCE IN CASES OF LIMITED LIABILITY. During the past two weeks several cases relating to the limitation of liability of ship -owners have come before the Supreme court of the United States on appeal from Circuit courts. In each of these cases the question of insurance has been. considered in its bearing as being part of the interest of the owner in the vessel at fault for the destruc- tion of another ve-sel without the privity of the owner. These cases involve many fine nts. All the cases under discussion being of the same nature we will take that of “Place et al v. Norwich & New York Trans- portation Company,” for analysis in order to show the opinion of the Supreme judges regarding the bearing of insurance on the owner’s interest in his vessel. It was held by the circuit court that the owners’ interest in his vessel consisting of the value of the vessel after the accident and the freight pending, (that is the freight earned.) If the vessel which causes disaster to another sinks or is totally lost before reaching port the owners of the innocent vessel have no redress and can recover nothing. If the ship causing the loss is insured the owners re- cover the insurance money and the owners of the other vessel have no lien on it. This was also the ruling of the Supreme court in an opinion deliverd by Justice Bradley, while Justice Matthews, Justice Miller, Justice Harlan, and Justice Gray in an opinion delivered by Justice Matthews dis- sented, a) Justice Bradley in the following points, denied that insurance, at. the time ot the ofiense or after the offense could be a part ot the owners interest in the ship: 1. That the owner was entitled to a limi- tation of liability to the value of its interest in ship and freight under the act of 1851. (Sects. 4282-4287 Rev. Stats.) 2. That the point of time at which the amount or value of the owner’s interest in ship and freight is to be taken for fixing its lability is the termination of the voy age on whieh the loss or damage occurs. 8. That it the ship is lost at sea, or the voyage be otherwise broken up before ar- riving at her port of destipation, the voy- age is then terminated for the purpose of fixing the owner’s liability. 4, That in the present case, the voyage was terminated when the ship had sunk, and that her value at that time was the limit of the owner’s liability; and that the subse- quen: raising of the wreck and repair of the ship, giving her an increased value, had nothing to do with the Jiability of the owner, 5. That no freight except what is earned is to be estimated in fixing the amount of the owner’s liability. 6. That insurance is no part of the owner’s interest in the ship or freight within the meaning of the law and does not enter into the amount for which the owner is held liable. 7. That the limitation of liability is ap- plicable to proceeding in rem against the ship as well as to proceedings in personam against the owner; the limitation extends to the owner’s property as well as to his per- son. 8. That the right to proceed for a limita- tion of liability is not lost or waived by a surrender of the ship to underwriters. These points we believe, are well taken if the value of the offending ship is considered after the offense, as has been by admiralty courts inany times. shall not enter into the settlement. But in surance becomes an interest to the owner after the vessel is lost and as that is the time when the computation for liability is made it should be considered as subject to lien and accounted as part of the assets involved, or in other words part of the liability. Ina dissenting opinion to the ruling of the court Justice Matthews said that the statute is re- duced to the question whether the seadahigel 4 money paid or payable to the owner in case of the loss of or damage to the ship is to be included in the estimate of the value of the owners interest in it. In defending this position he says: “Whether the value of the owner’s interest in his lost or damaged ship, in the sense of the estate, means its money value to him computed with reference to every pecuniary advantage and benefit it brings to him, or whether it means the price brought by the material things which re- main when put to sale to the best bidder, leaving him in possession ot these legal rights, springing out of and supported by his interest in it, which asa case of in- surance, oraright of action against the cause or instrument of its loss, may result in restoring to him in money his ships full original value. It is true, that the Act de- clared that a transfer of the owner’s interest in the ship and freight shall be a sufficient compliance with its conditions, and, by construing this with narrow and literal ex- actness, this transter may be confined to the mere wreck and physical remnant of the broken ship, or, if sunk to the bottom of the sea, the mere spes recuperandi. But this con- struction, we think, haeret in cortice. The whole language of the Act must be taken together, and nothing less will satisfy its meaning or its policy that such a transfer or payment as will include the full money value to the owner of his interest in the ship, which the statute requires him to‘ sacritice in order to purchase the immunity which it bestowes on that condition alone. For the policy of the Act was to encourage invest- ments in ships by limiting losses from the risks of navigation to the amount and value of the investment, and that includes the in- | law to the insurer. ruled | The law | of 1851 states that the freight unless earned | surance recovered by force of a premium which, when paid, constitutes part of the in- vestment, which restores it when lost or impaired. Insurance adds tothe ship a value of its own, by imparting to the subject of in- surance the quality of reproducing itself or its value in case of injury or loss, It was the policy of the Act to encourage the shipping interest by a protection against the un- limited personal liability of ship owners tor the acts and defaults of their agents and representatives, with reasonable regard to the rights and interests of others engaged in the same pursuit, and not to put a premium on its destrvetion by taking away from ship. Owners a principal motive for regarding either their own or the interest of others, And the language of the statute seems to us not only to bear such a meaning, but fairly. to imply it. For certainly every pecuniary advantage or profit which the ownership of a thing actually secures by necessary opera tion of Jaw may be estimated to ascertain the value of the thing toits owner. The in- surance, which in case of damage or loss re- pairs and restores the vessel or stands in its place, and is its product and earning, being. the purchase money paid for it by virtue of the contract which assumes the risks insured against, is strictly an accessory of the ship insured, as much so as to the freight which she earns, and the express mention of the latter, as part of the interest to be transfer- red, is not to be held as excluding insurance because not expressly mentioned, for the reason that the mention of freight jis sufi: cient to characterize the nature of the own- er’s interest to be valued, as ineluding not merely the material remnants of the broken or sunk vessel in specie, but as well that which it produces, and which is in truth her representative, and of which it is the merit- orious Cause and consideration. For the in- surance is the price paid by the insurer to the insured as the purchase pro tanto of the thing insured when damaged or lost, and, in the hands of the owner or due to him, still remains as the value of an in. terest in the ship as that existed when dam- aged or lost, and ought to be accounted for as partof thatvalue as much so as freight paid, though no longer freight money in kind, must still be valued and aecounted for by the owner who has received it. The in- surance money is the interest of the owner in the ship reduced to money, and, there- fore, most accurately measures its value; for, in cases of total loss, actual or constructive, all iaterest of the owner, even though it be a mere spes recuperandi, on payment of the insurance money, passes by operation of Yet that very ipterest, thus the property, on abandonment or pay- ment of a total loss, the title to which passes to the insurer, is the same interest, the value of which, by the terms of the statute, must be decreed to the libelant to exonerate the owner from personal liability to any addi- tional extent.’’ The American and English statutes of | limited liability are unequal in effect. While , under American ruling the amount of the liability is taken or noted after the disaster, in England the owner becomes liable to the value of the vessel and freight pending, immediately before disaster or collision. Under the same system of argument we would advance the opinion that in the En- glish admiralty courts the owner’s interest in the vesselin relation tothe item of insurance would be absolved in computing liability, whereas in the United States it becomes one of the prime items of computation, the con dition of the boat, and the time of assessing value being reversed. ‘Thatis if the Ameri- can suitor should commence his action in England he would recover his debt; if he should commence it in his own country he would get nothing if the vessel proceeded against was a total loss. Suppose, for in- stance, that after the collision which gave to the libelants the lien and right to proceed against the offending vessel for the loss and damage, the latter has been effectually sold, while still pursuing her voyage, and the title transferred to a purchaser, would not the purchase money, either in the hands of the vendor when paid, or iu those of the vendee until paid, notwithstanding the sub- sequent total loss of the ship itself during the saine voyage before reaching her home port, be the measure of the value of the owner’s interest to the full amount of which the injured party might recover? It seems to us there can be but one answer to that question, and that in the affirmative. It seems to us eqnally clear that no distinction can be drawn between the case just supposed and that of insurance. For the policy of in- surance, in cases of total loss is analagous to a contract of sale, by which the ship, or what remains of her, or the hope of her re- covery, become on the happening of the contingency the property of the insurer, and the insurance money payable, the price, aS upon aconyeyance. In_ both cases the interest of the owner is transferred from the thing to the money which represents it and stands in place of it, and the money is the measure of the value of the interest ot the owner in the thing, for it is the price and equivalent paid for it. We can not bring ourselves to think that congress in- tended by limiting the personal liability of the ship owner, in cases where previously his whole fortune was responsible for the wrongs committed through his agents and representatives, to the value of his interest in the ship, which was the instrument of: the injury, to permit the innocent party | suffering the damage to go entirely without redress, when the vessel in fault, by dis- aster subsequently happening during the whole period of the same voyage, has been totally lost, and the owner, by a contract in force when the wrong was done, receives full compensation by way of insurance for the loss he bas incurred, and bas thus re- stored to him the offending vessel, not in- deed, in specie but in value. It seems to us it is the meaning of the statute that the owner shall receive no pecuniary benefic from his interest in the vessel doing the wrong, which shall not inure to the com- pensation of him who has suffered the loss which it has caused. And that meaning congress has taken pains to express by the use of the word “interest,” as the subject which, or the value of which, the owner must surrender and transfer or account for, | as the price of his immunity from personal } liability, because it is appropriate to con- vey the idea, being large enough to embraee, not the mere legal title to the vessel or the wreck and 1emnant of her which may be saved from: the perils of the voyage, but every claim and benefit which constitutes to the owner its substance and value, capa- ble of measurement in money. We do not, therefore, hesitate to say that the time is approaching when owners of large and valuable vessels will appeal for the rescinding of the law which provides for the limitation of liability. FavoORABLE report has been made on the bill for the establishment of a lighthouse at North Point, Milwaukee. ee a EveryYTHING works togeher for good this season. Congress has passed a bill creating the office of Inspector of hulls-at Duluth. Ir is a pleasure to note that Governor Hill has put his signature to the bill for the lengthening and improving the Be locks on the Erie canal. | reference to. the mines ¢ f Mi In the Senate Mr. Frye, from the com. mittee on commerce, reported favorably a bill to amend the laws relating to the inepec- tion of steam vessels. The bill provides for the payment, out of the treasury, of the ex- penses of steamboat inspectors. Mr. Frye said the bill was in answer to a recommenda. tion of the President. The vessel owners of the country, Mr. Frye added, were under obligations to the President for his approval of the shipping bill, and for his recommenda- tion for supplementary legislation to provide for the expenses of the steamboat inspectors. Congress ought at once to provide that legis- lation. Acting Secretary Fairchild has noti- fied inspectors of steam vessels that fees for inepecting and examining steam vessels and for licensing officers of the same are not to be collected after July 1, the date 6n which the new shipping law goes into effect. They are, however, toinspect and make quarterly reports of such inspection together with a statement of the amount of fees which would have been received under the present law. In view of the fact that the abolishment of the fees for licensing officers of steam ves- sels may induce unworthy persons to make application for such licenses, inspectors are ' directed to exercise increased vigilance in scrutinizing the claims and qualifications of all applicants for license as master, en- gineer, pilot or mate that may come before them, and not to grant such licenses to any person whatever unless such person is fully up to the requirements contemplated by law. LAUNCH OF THE Ss. CHARLEMAGNE TOWER, JR. The launch of this fine steamship, for the : Wilson Transit Line, at Q tayle’s yard last E Saturday was witnessed by a multitude of people, all of wkom testified to their appreci- ation of the skill of the builders and the enterprise of the line ordering her construc- tion. The launch, as was announced in the ReEcorD last week, was attended by a cere- mony of christening, unusual at this port, the ‘office being gracefully performed by Miss Emma R. Ely, daughter of Hon. George Ely. As the ropes were cut the boat, well packed up, slid on an even keel % and dropped into the turbid waters of the Cuyahoga, the gentle maiden struck the bow of the new steamer with a “hanimer,’’ pronouncing. the. name of Charlemagne Tower, Jr. Previous to the launch Mr. George Ely delivered an address to the Wilson Transit Line, represented by Captain Thomas Wil- son, the builders, and the people assembled, eulogizing the enterprise and skill displayed in the construction, in the following well chosen words. omer “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: We argon < the decks of another and the latest contribu- _ tion of Cleveland to the merchant marine i: the great lakes. The building and the launching of a ship never fails to command our interest. There is the thought ° ship in the brair. ot the builder. tion throngh plan a: ad drawing cessive steps ot construction topmast, until the glorious er buman skull and industry is ready with sail ts and steam tor the uses of commer se, iS” process of beauty; and no wonder the culuination of it, in the co nmitment destined element, kindles our pride achievement. But not only has there been the evolution of the ship there bas been | also the evolu ion of ship building. — : Messrs. Q iayle and Captain Wilson and t host of other Cleveland shipbuilders- and- ship owners have sent out of this Larbor many a gallant ship. hie whet hie in sity of ‘commerce, Rape ha ah al ateper harbors, not Rcd has increas steam a vast wugmentation fluence. substitution that sail ihe pee cidental and auxiliary to steam and there yet lingers upon. the of the earlier constructions, on but now sweeping past them strength and grandeur go the ‘creations of the shipyards of this day, — representing the wonderfully changed conditions of our lake commerce. The iron of twenty years ago brought 350 450 ons of ore to Cleveland. docks by sail. average of her round trip to Lake Supe. or was twenty days. ‘his vessel wi ste and sail will, averaging tep days only the round trip, bring: to our docks from mines of Minnesota 2,800 to 3,000 is figuring on the 20 feet of water : and by nd construction noe he tbe Sault within five year