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2 rHE MARINE RECORD. pe MARINE LAW. MARINE INSURANCE—THROUGH BILL, ING, \ U. 8S, Dist, Court, South: Dist. of New York. Red ‘Wing Mills vs. the Mercantile Liisur- ance Company. ; Sidney Chubb, Esq., for the libellant, Measrs. Scudder and Carter for the Respond- ents. On the 14th of December, 1878, the libel- lunts delivered to the Merchant's ‘T'ranspor- tation Company, at Red Wing, Minnesota, 800 bariels of flour to be. transported from Red Wing to Glasgow, Scotland, and re- ceived what is known asa through bill of lading, entitled, *“'he Merchants’ Dispatch Transportation Company and the Stute Line.”?. On the 16th of December the libel- lants took out a certificate of insurance from the respondent’s company to the amount of $2,800 upon the 800 barrels of flour insured, to be shipped “on board of the State Line at and from New York to Glasgow, Scot- land.” On the arrival of the flour at New York, one of the regular vessels of the State T.ine having been totally lost, and there be- ing an accumulation of goods, the agents ot the State Line, Auctin, Baldwin & Co., took to themselves an assignmentof a charter- party of the steamship Zanzibar from the agent of the New York Central Railroad Company, who held the charter of the Zan- zibar, and thereupon, on account of the State Line, Austin, Baldwin & Co. loaded her “with wheat and peas in bulk, and other car- go, including 400 barrels of the flour in ques- tion. The Zanzibar shortly after sailed from New York and has never been heard from. The claim of the libellant’s for those 400 barrels of flour was adjusted by the re- spondents’ agents in London, as a total loss payment, however, was resisted on the ground that the policy never attached as re spects the Zanzibar, because, as alleged, she was.not a vessel belonging to the State Line. The through bill of lading contained amorg others, the following clauses: OF LAD- os * “6th. It is further agreed that the said Merchants’ Diepatch’ Transportation ‘Com- pany have liberty to forward the goods or property to port of destination by any other steamer or steamship company than: that named herein, and this contract is executed - and sccomplished and the liability of the Merchants’ Dispatch Transportation Com- pany as common Carriers thereunder term- inates on delivery of the goods or property to the steamer or steamship company’s pier in New York, when the responsibility of the steamship conipany. commences, and not belore. “7th, And it is further agreed that the property shall be transported trom the port of New York to the port of Glasgow by the said steamship company, with liberty to ship by any other steamship cr steamship com- pany.” The charter-party of the Zanzibar is dated December 18, 1878, und provides that the Zarzibar, classed as 100 A 1 1, in measure- ment 2,245 tons, should proceec from Liver- pool to New York an@ thence back with a cargo of provisions and grain or cotton, ata specified rate of freight, to some one safe di- rect portin the United Kingdom of Great Britain and [reland, ete. On the 28th of December, the ship being then in New York, all right, title and interest in the charter- party was transferred to the agent of the State Line. By the terms of the chaiter- party the navigation of the ship remained entirely under the control and at the expense of her owners, and not of the charterers, * * * * Evidence was given at the trial te the ef- fect that on vessels belonging to regular and known lines of transportation, the rate of in- surance is less than upon independent ves- sels. Evidence was also given by several agents of insurance companies that they would not consider a single vessel employed upon a single trip, like the Zanzibar to come within the description of the State Line, re- ferred to in the certifleate of insurance. Brown, J. Ido not think that this case should be determined with any reference to what the agents of the Insurance companies in New York might consider as coming with- in the description of the State Line. ‘The merchants who shipped tho-e goods by a through bill of lading a thousand miles away in the interior, and who deal with the insur. ance company’s agentsthere, have a right to rely upon the ordinary meaning and scope of the terms used in the certificate of insur- ance.unlers a more restricted meaning is proved to have been recognized and estab- lished by general mercantile usage, er else expressly brought to their notice; neither of which was done. ‘This insurance was not upon any particu- lar vessel, It was manifestly intended to be as broad us the State Line, which was acting in conjunction with the ‘Traneportation Com- pany in obtaining goods on a through bill of lading. - In. my judgment, therefore, the State Line must be held to embrace all ves- sels which were navigated under the posses- ‘sion, control and management of the State Line, whether the vessels were such as ex- isted on the date when the certificate of in- surance was issued, or Were new vessels in- troduced into that line afterwards, on board ot which the goods might. be shipped, or whether the vessels were owned or were merely chartered by that line, either before or‘after the date of the certificate provided they were in its possession and control. Nor can I deem it of any consequence that the ves:el performed but a single voyage, pro- vided that upon the voyage upon which she sniled she was in the possession and under the management and control of the State Line. If so, she was, during that voyage, a part of the State Line, and was one of the vessels of the State Line, pro hac vice. If, onthe other hand, the vessel which carried the flour was not in the possession or under the management or control. of the State Line, then the case would be one of a carriage of the goods by another steamer to which the State Line had transferred them. ‘The express conditions of the through bill of lading gave the’ State Line the right to transfer the goods to any other steamship or company; and-if the State Line did thus transfer the carriage of 400 barrels, a part of this consignment, to any other vessel, in ac- cordance with this provision, it seems plain that the certificate of insurance would not attach to the latter vessel. ‘I'he existence of this provision in the through bill of lading was notice to the libellants of the necessity of watchfulnegs on their part in respect to any transter of the goods by the State Line to any other steamer, and of the need of pro- vision for such a contingency in their insur- ance. After the loss of the Zanzibar was suspect- ed some correspondence between the parties to this suit arose on that very point, from which it is clear that the libellants were aware of this contingency in regard to the insurance, and of the necessity of an assent by the insurance company in order to hold them as respects any other vegsel to which the flour or any part of it might have been ransferred, The terms of the charter of the Zanzibar, of which the agents of the State Line took the transfer, are such as show Clearly that the agent of the Stare Line did not acquire the possession or and control of the naviga- tion of the latter vessel. It was a contract of affreightment only, and by the assign- ment of it to the agents of the State Line gave them the right only to lade the ship with such and such goods. The possession and the responsibility and control of the navigation of the Zanzibar remained solely with her general owners. And it was under such a charter-party that the 400 barrels in This in my judgment was a transfer of 80 question were laden on board the Zanzibar by the State Line. much of this flour to another steamer within the terms of the provision of the bill of lad- ing. The State Line had no possession of the Zanzibar and no control over her, ‘They loaded the flour on board of her as any mer- chant might have done, at a specified rate of freight, for which, under the terms of the charter-party, the vessel and her owners contracted to deliver these goods at Glaszow. On the ground, theretore, that neither the possession nor the control of the Zanzibar upon this voyage was inthe State Line, I must hold that the Zanzibar was not one of the vessels of the State Line, even ‘tempora- rily, or pro hac vice; that the certificate of insurance, therefore, did not attach; and that the libel must be dismissed with costa. January 9, 1884, The work of taking up the old wrecks which obstruct navigation in the river at Mobile, Ala., is now under way. GENERAL NEWS. The French. Mintster-of Marine’ opposes hie projected elevated railway across the} straits of Dover, Merars, Robert Palmer & Sons, of Noank, Ct. have recently lannvhed a very handsome pilot boat for Mr, Satiuel Brockington and others, of Bruuswick, Ga, She is 82 feet long, 21 feet wide and 9 feet 6 inches deep. A combination of the lighted and whistling buoy is to, be made it is. said, the Bigler (Courtney patent) whistling buoy and the Foster lighted buoy, people having joined forces, This-.combination buoy is a good idea. : : David C. Keller, pilot of the Scioto, sunk in collision near. Mingo Junction, July 4, 1882, and forty-four lives Jost, was. found guilty at Parkersbug, W. Va., Thursday of voluntary manslaughter, but recommended to mercy. The American Shipbuilding Co. launched from their yard at Philadelphia on February 6,a 3-masted iron centre-board schooners ‘built for Captain Maloy and others. She is intended for the West Irdia and general coasting trade. Captain Call of the ship J. E. Ridgeway. presented to the Philadelphia Branch of the Hydrographic Office, a large piece of pumice picked up by him in the Strait of Sunda, atter the eruption of Krakatoa. ‘The piece has been sent to Washington, where it will be placed on exhibition in the Smith- sonian Institute. - Of the fourteen scientific expeditions sent out by the leading governments of the world to muke observations of diflerent stations in the Arctic regions during the year ending August 31, 1883, eleven have safely returned, and three—ineluding that of the United States at Lady Franklin Bay— will continue their observations for about another year. ‘The House Shipping Committee has. au-|- thorized Mr. Dingley to report tavorably his bill to constitute a Bureau ot Navigation in the Treasury Department. The bill provides for a Commissioner of Navigation and assigus to the bureau the charge of all matters relating to vessels and seamen now surpervieed by the Register’s office and Nav- igation Division. The National Board of Trade recently discussed the matter of fictitious bills of lading. The discussion arose from reference to alleged fraudulent bills covering fictitious shipments from points for the South to New York and New England. A committee was appointed to prepare a bill on the subject to be presented to Congress. ‘he same com- mittee was instructed to prepare a bill secur- ing advances of money made upon bills of lading. f “It is generally thonught,’’ significantly observes the Washington Star, “that the promoters of the Hennepin canal scheme lived ful.y up to their opportunities in the Mississippi river convention just held in this city. ‘The tactics by which the convention was made to endorse that project is spoken of asastriking illustration of the curious uavural phenomenon known as the tail wigging the dog.’’ That’s a good scheme to keep a close watch on. Another new steamdredge, named the Nathan Appleton, owned by the American Contracting and Dredging Co., of New York, for services on the Panama Canal, has almost been completed at Philadelphia. She will sail from the latter port on or about February 20, in command of Cap.ain Wiltbank. ‘The Nathan Appleton takes the place of the Prosper Hurne, recently destroyed by fire at Aspinwall. An exchange says th it at the present timé 530 American built ships are on the ocean, of which 158 are under foreign flags. Of those under the American flag 263 were built in the State of Maine, while only 119 were built in other States. Of these ships 115 were builtin Bath alone. Less of the Maine built ships have passed under foreign flags than those of the other States. Only 15 Bath built ships sail under the flag of other countries. The Maine ships are the finest that sail the ocean in all that makes up the prefect sailing vessel, The wretched condition of the American navy is being frequently fllustrated nowa- days, and if a few more accidents occur the House of Representatives will be willing to appropriate something to keep it in floating shape. ‘The steamship Saratoga, which has | been on the docks at the Brooklyn navy yard, while passing into the harbor recently was run into by a ferryboat and damaged so much that seye'al months more of tinkering will be needed to/put her into condition for sea service, © Here is a new text for the penc ing debate ‘on the naval ap- propriation bill. . : In these days of rapid changes the nutber of coust lights is constantly increasing in all growing States. ‘lake the Australian coast: A shipmaster approaches it with a chart cev- eral years old; on itis marked’a light ata certain point, but since the chart was made another light has been erected on the same shore line. The captain sees a light, takes it naturally to be the one marked on his chart, lays his ship accordingly and runs his ship ashore, If he had possessed the most recent chart or the latest corrections on his own the loss would not have occurred. ‘here are many such cases of ehipwreck. Dr. J.J. Wild, F..R.G.8., sums up as follows the results of recent investigations into the causes of the color of the sea, and of | the apparent discoloration of the sea-water in certain areas of the ocean: “The various tints of blue and yreen which constitute what may be culled the proper color of sea- water are due to a greater or less operation of-sult held in solution, the color being an intense blue when the water is very salt, and changing. by degrees to a green-blue, or blue-green and green color as the water be- comes more fresh. On the other hand the abnormally colored red, yellow, brown and inky seas owe their appearance to the ac- cumulation of large magsts of sea-weed, from the gigantic Algae, which fringe the shores of. oveanic . islands, to the microscopé diatoms; but almost.as frequently the dis- coloration is caused by myriads of animal organisms collected in shoals at the surface of the ovean. ‘ s The Board of Supervising: Inspectors of steamboats adopted inspectors an amendment to the rules.of the steamboat inspection ser- vices prohibiting all persons on passenger steamboats, except the preper officers of the boat and officers of the inspection service, from entering pilot houses while the boats are under way. Mr. Fehrenhatch, Inspector of the Seventh District, proposed the follow- ing amendment to rule 13 relating to life touts on river steamers: Passenger steamers navigating rivers ‘must be supplied, in ad- dition to the boat required in the first para- graph of this rule of proportion, with boats as-follows: Steamers between 100 and 300 tons burden, one boat; between 300 and 600, two boats; 600 and 900, three boats; 900 and 1,200, four boats; 1,200 tons and upward, five boats; provided no steamers etabraced in the rule be required to have more life boats or a grenter capacity than sufficent to carry passengers allowed by tle certificate of inspectors, including the crew. STEAMBOAT ENGINEERS. A meeting of the board of examiners tor certificates for engineeis is convened for Tuesday, February 26th, at the Custom House building, ‘lorcnto, at 10 a.m. A candidate for third-class engineer must have served sin apprenticeship of not less than three years in a marine engine shop, and been employed on the making and repairing of such engines; or, it he has not served such apprenticeship, he must prove that he bas been employed for no less than three years as a journeyman mechanic in some workshop on the making and_ repairing of such engines. In either case he must also have served twelve months in the engine room of a steamboat us engineer on the watch; he must be able to describe the boilers he has been accustomed to watch, their weak points, (if auy,) the feed-water arrangements, steam pipe valves, and safety- valves, and their capacity und efficiency; he must have sufficient knowledge of the stay- power of the boilers to know if they were safe at the working pressure carried in them; he must know the method of lining the engine, setting the valves, and adjusting the connections; he must write a legible hand, and know the first five rules of arith- metic, A second-class engineer, besides the qualifications of a third-class engineer, must have twenty-four months’ experience in the engine room of steamboats of not lees than thirty nominal horse-power, as engineer on the watch.—Kingston News. THE FIRST WRECK ON LAKE ON- TARIO, ‘The first vessel ever wrecked on Lake On- tario, was the Ontario, built at what was then known as Deer Island, (now Carleton) in 1779. She was the largest veseel ever on the lakes up to that time. According to the history of that period she was capable of - carrying a thousand barrels of freight,—Og- densburg Journal,