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wie MARINE LAW. FOUR ADMIRALTY CASEs, All who are interested in marine matters will see the importance of the following decisions. ‘They were made by Judge Walker in the United States district court this week in Cleveland. They touch on the rights of vessels at anchor in roadsteads, of masters of vessels to liens on their freight for wages on the amount recoverable for repairs to injured vessels and on marine matters generally. William McGill vs. steambarge Oscar Townsend and barge Edward Kelley. The steambarge Oscar ‘ownsend with the barge Edwaid Kelley.in tow, came down the St. Clair River at two o’clock on the morning of October 19, 1881, and ran the Kelley into the schooner Sunrise, which was lying at anchor in the river near Sarnia Bay, and was the cause of great damage to the schooner, for which this libel suit is filed. The barge Kelley claimes to be somewhat damaged, for which a cross-libel is filed by her owners against the Sunrise. ‘The libel- ant alleges that the Sunrise was anchored at asuitable and proper place, and that its officers were guilty of no fanlt or careless- ness, and that the collision occurred through the fault and carelessness of ‘Townsend and Kelley. ‘his is denied by the answer, aud it is alleged in the answer that the collision was occasioned by the fault of the Sunrise. ‘The court finds that the Sunrise was in the night time anchored in the St. Clair River, and within the channel or roadstead usually taken at that point by vessels coming down the river at night. ‘That, although anchor- * ing in the river in the. night time or day time is not necessarily improper or danger- ous, and although it may be customary to do so during stress of weather, yet when so doing in the night, great care must be used to make ample room and space in the channel for passing vessels, and to so locate the anchorage as to avoid possible danger. That the Sunrise was anchored at a dangerous place in the river, ata point where there was strong current and where her lights might have been easily confounded with those on the Canada shore beyond her by persons on vessels coming down the river, and difficult to distinguish from them. ‘That the Sunrise did not have at the time a suitable and proper anchor watch to guard her from danger from passing vessels com- ing down the river. That she did not put up and keep up in good order to the time of collision suitable and proper anchor lights to notify passing vessels of her locality, sv as ‘to avoid collision with her: that she did not comply with rule 10 R.58., section 4233, which requires that all vessels when at anchor in roadsteads or fair-ways shall ex- hibit where it can best be seen, a white light, constructed so as to show aclear, uniform, and unbroken light, vieible all around the horizon; that she did not display, as it was her duty, a torch-light when the lights of the Townsend and Kelley were first made, as they approached her, to enable them to see her and avoid a collision. That immedi- ately before the collision she failed to change her position, as she might have done by put- ting her wheel to starboard instead of to port, and thereby cause her to swing out of the way of the ‘Townsend and Kelley. In all of which respects the Sunrise was at fault and negligent. That the Townsend in coming down the river occupied the usual] channel or roadstead at the point where the Sunrise was anchored and located. That it had proper lights and a proper watch at the proper place. ‘That the lights of the Sun- rise being so dim at the time were not seen by the Townsend far enough away to have avoided the collision althouge proper dil- igence was used for that purpose. That when the lights were seen being close upon the Sunrise the master of the ‘Townsend used proper steamship in trying to avoid the collision ; and that, therefore, the ‘Town- send was not guilty of negligence or.careless- ness in causing the injury. That the Kelley being the tow was guilty of no negligence and therefore not liable for the injury to the Sunrise. The claim of the Kelley in the cross libel not being pressed by counsel, the cross libel is dismissed. Decree dismissing libel at libellan*’? costs. Appeal allowed, William H. Condon and E, A. Argell proc- tors for libellant, and Goulder & Weh: and Willey, Sherman & Hoyt, for respondents .} and cross-libellants. THE ARCTURUS CASE, James M. Jones, jr., vs. the freight and cargo of the barge Arcturus. The libellant was the master of the Are- turus, and had wages due him as such master for the owners of the vessel for the month of November, 1882. At that time he had on board the vessel a quantity of tele- graph poles owned by A. A. Colby which had' been carried on board the Arcturus, and were to be delivered at this port of San- dusky, upon which the said Colby was to pay freight in the usual way. Betore the telegraph poles were unloaded at Sandusky, the vessel was seized by the United States Marshal under a libel tiled by W. H. Wolf et al. against the Arcturus so that the master could not and did not unload the poles at San- dusky, and Colby, the owner, was compelled to pay $70 to procure the poles tobe un- loaded, and before he was allowed to do so he paid the whole freight money into the registry of the court which would have been earned by the Arcturus if the contract of affreightment had been fulfilled by the de- livery of the poles. ‘he libelant, Jones, the master claims the whole freight should be applied on his unpaid wages, and also a lien on the poles, the cargo, tor the amount due him for services as master. ‘The court finds that the libelant had no lien on the cargo for the wages beyond the proceedings he is only entitled to the freight actually earned by the vessel; that being the freight less what it costs to unload it at Sandusky; that the libelant is entitled to a decree for that part of the freight so actually earned to be applied on his wages as such master; that Colby is entitled to repayment out of the registry of the amount he paid for the un- loading of the cargo, being the sum of seventy dollars. ond Mix, Noble & White, proctors for libelant, and Gonlder & Weh for respondents. _ ANOTHER CASE AGAINST THE TUTHILL, Humphrey Siason et at. vs. tug Fannie Tuthill and barge Harvest. On exceptions to report of Earl Bill, commissioner, as to damages sustained by collision with schoon- er Minnie Davis. : There are thirteen exceptions filed by the respondent owner of the Tuthill, covering all the findings of the commissioner. After full argument on behalf of both parties the: exceptions are overruled and the report con- firmed, except as to the item of repairs made to the libelants’ vessel as allowed by the, commissioner, to wit, $700, tound by him to have been the reasonable value of the repairs, and as to that item the court reduced the amount to the sum ot $553.27, the actual ex- pense of the repairs as found by the com- missioner, the court holding that although the rule adopted by the commissioner being the reasonable value of repairs, constitutes the usual measure of damages, yet when it appears that the repairs were actually done for less and no claim made for more compen- sation by the shipwrights who did the work, in equity, such should be the measure of re- covery. Decree accordingly. Goulder & Weh, proctor for respondent, owner of tug Tut- hill. JENKS VS. MONTAUK. John Jenks vs. Schooner Moniauk. The libelant was the wheelsman on the Montauk and while in the Sault St. Marie River, the schooner, on August 4, 1881, in tow of a tug ran aground, and the libelant, then at the wheel in executing an order of the master, was injured by the wheel spin- ning around and striking him. The libel- ant claims that the master gave him an im- proper order, and that while executing it he was injured without his fault. his is de- nied, and itis alleged the libelant was in- jured through his own carelessness. ‘The court finds that the order given the wheels- man from the weight of the evidence was a proper one; that the libelantin executing the order, was himself guilty of carelessness which produced the injury and therefore not entitled to recover libel; dismissed with costs. Appeal allowed. Willey, Sherman & Hoyt, proctors for libelant, and Goulder & Weh for respond- ent. eo Be sure to advertise in the MARINE REc- ORD. AMERICAN STEAMBOA'S, It is well if the Americans can distance the English in one marine interest. From the English Marine Excharge it seems that they acknowledge the superiority of our river boats as the following language shows: ‘There is apparently a large and extended market for American flat river steamers on the shallow navigable rivers of Europe and Asia. In China they have ulready effected almost a revolution in the water carrying trade of that empire, and we hear that there isa brisk demand for them already on the Volga. The plan adopted in that case by the Americun builders is to take out the ma- chinery witl them, and to build the steam- ers of timber on the spot. ‘Lhls plan pro~ duces a steamer much cheaper than the iron river steamers exported from England, which have been in use there for some time. Not only is their success due to that cause, but more especially owing to the fact that the American built boats only require a draft ot four feet, while most of the English steamers require nine. Even a draft of five feet bars the navigation through a great portion of the river, and the spee¢ of the wooden American boats is said to be better than that of any of their iron competitors. The light dratt of the American boats has opened up a navigable length of some 2,000 to 2,300 miles on the Volga, which will prob- ably induce further orders for the other large rivers of Russia. There should be an equally good market for such steamers on the rivers of the Argentine Republic. which are very wide, but for the most part shallow. We understand, however, that there isa strong prejudice agains: them, owing to their lia- bility to catch fire—the first two which were run on the Plate having been destroyed by fire. We do not see why America should have a monopoly of such flat bottomed river steamers, and we recommend this to the at- tention of English shipbuilders, though as a nation we are said to be the last to suit our goods to customer’s requirements. SAD DROWNING. Robert Sykes, caretaker of Militon Island, near Kingston, was drowned Monday after- noon in a most distressing manner. The particulars are related by the Kingston News: “After he had gone about fifty yards fiom the island he put up the sail, when the wind which was blowing a gale at the time, struck it, and the result was that the boat was cap- sized and the occupant thrown into the wa- ter. His wife was standing on the island at the time, and witnessed the accident. She was afraid he might meet with some mishap, and so went down to the shore to watch him out of sight. Being a good swimmer, and no doubt thinking he would have no trouble in reaching the shore, he left the boat and swam for the bank. She watched the sv im- mer anxiously. When about twenty-five feet from her he showed signs of distress and told her he thought he could ‘ast no longer. She became distracted but there was nothing she could do to assist him. There was a boat at the house, but it would take some time to launch it. Finally he told her he was going down, and bidding her good-bye, he disap- peared with a gurgle beneath the surface. The poor woman did not know what todo with grief. She brought outa horn, and standing on the shore blew it with all her might, thinking to attract attention, bat no one made an appearance. She remained on the island alone with her five little children all Monday night, Tuesday and ‘Tuesday night. Atintervals she kept blowing the horn, the sound of which was heard this morning by Mr. W. Seal who, with his brother Alexander, went to the island ina boat, and learned the sad _ particulars related above. Out of the millions of bushels of wheat sent abroad this season, not a pound was carried in an American vessel. There were British, French, German, Austrian, Spanish, Swedish and Italian, but not one American. The small and insignificant kingdom of Bel- gium sent us ships to be laden with five mill- ion bushels. The Italians took three millions, the Dutch two millions, and the -Britisn be- tween twenty-six and twenty-seven millions. That the foreign carrying-trade should yast- ly surpass the home marine would of course be looked tor, but it is remarkable that out of more than forty-six million bushels ex- ported, not a solitary grain was taken away in an American vessel, and it took over thir- teen hundred foreign vessels to do the whole business. ‘The only place we beat foreign- ers is in our maritie on the lakes. : A Yale Incident of Fifty Years Ago. The notice of the late Dr. Hawley in esterday’s Register brings to the recol- ection of the writer an occurrence of fifty years ago, which goes to prove the great physical strength and endurance of the doctor as there stated. At the opening of the Yale medical course in 1833, in what is now the South Sheffield building, there was a notice given after the lectures one afternoon that there would be a choice of ‘‘bully”’ for the season on the grounds east of the col- lege. This brought Rev. Dr. Peter Parker on his feet in opposition. He made a special plea stating that choos- ing bullies by a tussel of strength had become obsolete in all colleges, and ad- vocated the more modern and respecta- ble course of electing them by ballot. The students gave very respectful attention to his speech and then left for the place appointed. A very large, beautiful thigh bone was laid on the grass and a circle formed ‘around it. The bone was soon taken up, which meant a challenge. The students would take hold of it in a particular manner, each having one hand between the hands of the other. Hawley was one of the first to hold it. There were about seventy students in the class, and Hawley stuck to his bone in spite of the majority of them and bore it off in triumph. Some of the fellows he would throw nearly a rod. ‘They would come boots foremost, and we had to look out for ourselves to avoid getting hit, Of that class the number now living can be counted on the fingers of one hand, as far as the writer can learn. There is Hon. Peter - Parker, from Massachusetts, who distinguished him- self as an oculist in China; Rev. Thomas K. Fessenden, from Brattle- boro, Vt., who has done so much for unfortunate girls; Dr. Harrison, of Wallingford, and the writer. The class at that time was equal in numbers toall the medical students in Boston, and but few short of the city of New York. Now Boston numbers hers by hundreds and New York by thousands. The class in ‘New Haven had students from nearly all the States, and from South America, West Indies and Eu- rope.—Letier to New Haven Register. A Brave Naval Officer. The crew of the United States steam- er Powhatan,says the New York Herald, was being exercised recently while she was lying off Port au Prince, and during the exercises a Seay officer fell from the yards. His bo y struck one of the guns and shot through the port-hole into the sea. The Quartermaster, who was op deck at the time, immediately sprang overboard and brought the body along- side. It was hauled up, but the poor petty officer was found to be dead, the shock of the fall on the deck having evidently killed him before the body fell into the water. The Captain of the vessel which ar- rived from Port au Prince yesterday, in describing what he had heard concern- ing the sad accident, says that the Quartermaster was sent for by the Com- mander of the Powhatan after the body of the petty officer had been taken out of the water, and that a colloquy, sub- stantially as follows took place: “Do you know the risk you ran in jumping overboard?’’ the Commander asked. “But little risk, sir, I think; I’m a good swimmer.” “But did you know that the vessel has been all day surrounded by sharks?”’ “J did, sir.” “And yet you went overboard?” “I thought I might save a life, sir.”’ The report of the Commander of the Powhatan will no doubt have an honor- able mention of the brave Quarter- master. The merchant Captain who re- ports the incidents narrated above adds that the man who was killed was buried with military honors, the remains being escorted to the cemetery by a guard of marines, and the Catholic Bishop and his assistants being in attendance in their robes of office. The name of the dead man was not ascertained by the merchant Captain. s o-___—_ —Leo XIII. seeks relaxation in the cemposition of Latin poems, all of which are printed under his careful supervision. After a few copies have been taken the type is distributed. —— 2 —Pere Hyacinthe, of Paris, is coming to America in the summer to deliver lectures