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MARITIME LAW. SEAMAN’S WAG&S—LEAVING VESSEL—SEA- WORTHINESS. In Admiralty. Bradford & Vai degrift, for libelants, John M. Arundel, for claimant. Wales. J. Libel for wages and damages. The libelants shipped on board the Heroe, bound from Philadelphia to Port of Spain, in the Island of ‘Trinidad—two of them in the capacity of quartermasters, two as fire- men, and the remainder as seamen—and they were to’ be paid tor the run, $50, $45 and $40, respectively, and on their arrival at the port of destination were to have their passage puid to Philadelphia or New York. ‘The Heroe is a sidewheel stermboat,designed principally for river navigation, and this was her first voyage. She is 10° tons burden, 110 feet long and 26 feet beam, provided with a single engine and a single furnace. The fur- nace was constructed for burning wood, but was temporarily adapted for the consump- tion of coal. She left Philadelphia on July 6th, last, with a crew of fourteen, all teld. She was about twenty-four hours i. making the breakwater, and after a short delay for some slight repairs to the machinery, put to sea, and hagd-gone as far as off Cape Hatteras when she y haan te to come to anchor for turther repairs to the engine. Before reaching Hatteras it was found necessary to stop the engine every few hours toclean the fires. By this time, also, it had been dis- covered that the machinery worked badly, and the vessel could not make more than three and a half or four knots an hour. Af- ter repeated efforts to put the engine in good working order, and more than one unsuc- -cessful attempt to proceed on the voyage, the vessel, at one time having lost steerage way, becoming unmanagenb'e, and the stock of coal being considerably reduced, it was decided to turn back and make Philadelphia, or the nearest port. The Heroe had first ar- rived off Hatteras on July 10th and returned to the breakwater on July 17th. Waiting here and at Cape May for orders from the owners, she was finally brought to'Delaware City on July 26th. Between Cape May and Delaware City the three lower tiers of tubes of the boilers gave out, and the crown-sheet was split for the length of six inches. ‘The steamboat was provided with sails, but it was not pretended that they were sufficient for her navigation. The captain surmised that by removing the paddles he might have proceeded under sail. At Delaware City the two quartermasters left the vessel on account of her unseaworthiness, and on the ground that the voyage had been broken up and abandoned, and heing retused pay- ment of wages filed their libel. Subse- quently the firemen and seamen filed their libel for wages, alleging that the captain had discharged them. By agreement of counsel the testimony taken under the first libel applies to the second, and both have been conrolidated. I entertain no doubt of the fact of the discharge of the firemen and seamen. The teetiniony of the libelants establishes the fact, and the captain admit- ted tothe marshal that be had no further use forthe men; that they were at liberty to go; and he permitted them to take their effects from the veseel. ‘he answer denies thas the men were “regularly” discharged, but the proof is too clear for discussion that they were virtually and practically dis- charged, and a decree will be entered for the payment of their wages, as stipulated in the shipping articles, less advances and credits. _ 1 have not been satisfied that they are entitled to any further compensation or damages. Itistrue, they expected to make therun out and return betore August Ist, but they have not suffered a long detention. The case of the quartermasters turns on a different question, to-wit, the unseaworthi- ness of the Heroe, and the deviation from and abandonment of the voyage for which they were engaged. hey do not allege that the captain discharged them, The an- awer apecifically denies unseaworthiness or abandonment, and claims that the Heroe was brought buck to Delaware City for the purpose of having hur steam engine put in proper order and repair, 80 as to enable sald ateamboat to resume or proceed on herjvoy- age to said Port of Spain,” ete., ‘which re- paire, as respondent has been informed, will be completed on or about Tuesday next, the 6th instant.” “Seaworthiness implies the sea voyage With probable safety ; that is, that she shall be tight, staunch and strong, prop- erly manned, provided with all necessary stores, and in all respects fit for the intend- ed voyage.” Bouv. Law Dict. Confining the inquiry to the fitness of this vessel to make the run trom Philadelphia tothe island of ‘I'rinidad, a distance of 2,300 miles, the testimony, not alone of the libelants, but of the captain and chiet engineer, is conclusive, ‘The vessel is well built for one of her class, and her officers appear to be experienced and competent, but there was such a detect in her machinery, owing to faulty construc- tion, or the ill adjustment of its various parte, that the chief engineer reported at the time when it was decided to turn back that he could do nothing with the engine. ‘The experiment of sending such a vessel on a voyage of 2,000 miles was somewhat hazard- ous, and the refusal of these libelunts to stand by her is not remarkable. -The vessel was altogether dependent on her engine for propelling power, and when that failed from faulty construction, or by’ reason of. the negligence or wavt of skill on the..part of the owners, the vessel could no longer be considered ae fit.for the voyage for which she was intended. A rotten or leaky hull or broken masts are no greater evidences of unseaworthiness than is a defective engine, under the vircumstances surrounding this case. ‘The libelunts shipped on. the Heroe on the faith that she wasin all -respects well found and provided, as: a steamboat should be, and when they had good reasons to be- lieve that she was a failure, and that their lives wonld be endangered by again going to seainsher, their conduct in leaving cannot be considered as censurable, It is quite probable that the machinery may be recti- fied. and made to work as originally designed, and the vessel ultimately reach its destina- tion, but in the mean time are the libelants compelled to remain on; board indetinitely, without additional compensation, and to:for telt their stipnlated wages unless they, make the run to Trinidad? Had the steamboat encountered storms or head winds, and ber voyage been delayed by theze or other perils of the -sea, the libelants must have been without warrant or justificatton for their action, and it would have beea their duty to remain on the vessel until .the voyage was ended. But this is obviously a different case, She was not thwarted by the elements, but by reason of her own inherent defecte. ‘he engine and boiler of the Heroe will require considerable repair and alteration before she Is fit for sea, and the evidence affords no eatisfactory information when these re- pairs will be completed. I think this vessel was unseaworthy from the facts already stated. ‘I'he chief engineer testified that the air pump was too small, and that the draughtsman of the machinery had made a mistake as :to its size. ‘The en- gine worked stiffly and slowly, being new and untried. ‘The speed never exceeded, if it reached, five knotsan hour. ‘The furnace was not intended for wood burning, and be- fore the officers had decided to. put back\to the Delaware there was not coal enough left to carry her to Bermuda. ‘I'he sails were not sufficient for her navigation, and had she met tempestuous weather the lives of the crew would have been imperiled, and probably lost. It {6 not denied that unseaworthiness re- leases a crew, and that they become entitled to their full wages tor the month or for the voyage; and if by the month, then for the time they served, with the allowance of a reasonable time for their return to the port of departure, The objection made by respondent’s coun- sel, that this court cannot entertain jurisdic- tion of the libels because these libelants have not complied with certain provisions ot the act of Congress relating to the dis charge of seamen and to the holding of sur- veyson ships alleged to be unseaworthy, comes too late. The case has been heard on ite merits. ‘The discharge and the fact of unseaworthiness can be proved at any stage of the proceedings. Beside, the statutes ro ferred to are not exclusive of other remedies, It is not necessary to consider the question of abandonment of the voynge. A decree will be entered for the payment of the quartermasters, Authority for the positions taken will be| a a A et ay v. Leathers, 97 U. S. 879; U. S.v. Nye, 2 Curt. C. U, 225; 1 Abb. Adm. 409; 1 Pars. Adm. Law, 47; Bray v. Atlanta, Bee, 48; the Gyrus, 2 Pet. Adm. 407; the Frank C. Barker, 19 Fed. Rep. 332; the Edward, Blateht. & H. 286, COMPOUND Vs. LOW PRESSURE. CLEVELAND, October 20. To the Editor of the Marine Record. So much has been said lately about the economy of the compound engine over all others that L wish to state a few facta l know of in favor of the low pressure, The steam er Jarvis Lord, on her last trip from Cleve- land, took the schooner Constitution as far ax Marquette, then went to the Portage with coal, returned to Marquette, loaded ore and towed the schooner Constitution and Monterey to Cleveland and consumed ouly ninety-five tons of slack coal, at one dollar per ton, and only atew. weeks ago you published an account of the stenmer N. K. Fairbank’s tuel consumption for a trip, viz, from Ashtabula, to Escanaba light, towing back the schooners ‘I’. W, Gilford, ‘Three Brother and Owasco, all ore Jaden. ‘The N. K. Fairbank having 1457. gross tons, and consuming on the entire trip only, 87 tons oefconk, Now don't misunderstand - met [am not against the compound engine, but where is the advantage of having this extra cylinder and connections? ‘he Jarvis Lord is allowed only 45 pounge of steam and the Fairbank, 40 pounds. Certainly; that is safer than the high pressure boiler of the com- pounds, carrying,.as they generally do, 100 pounds of steam. Both of the boate are owned and m«naged by Cleveland men, and any person doubting these facts can satiety themselves of,the truth, Low Pressure. THE HEIGHT OF ‘WAVES. Many experiments have been made to measure the height of wavea in all condi. tions of weather. One authority goes as high: as sixty-four feet and another as low as five feet, giving it as his reason that the penetrat- ipg power cf wind cannot reach below that depth. Of this philosopher it may be’ pre- sumed that he was a martyr to sea-sickness, and that he must have contented h-meelf with making his calculations in bis study. On the other hand, a height of sixty-four feet is almost as absurd, though itis more in correspondence than five feet can possibly be with our conception of the altitude of the majestic surges which -roll under the im- pulse of storms of wind along the surface of the great oceans. It is true that the earth- quake wave has been Known to-rise tostxty- feet; yet. surges of this kind are huap- pily scarce, since when they cecur they are not only in the habit of razing whole towns upon the coast line where they break, but of carrying some of the vessels they may en- counter at anchor in the neighborhood to the distance of a day’s walk inland. Practi- cal experience however will look with gus vicion upon most of the scientific theories touching the alitude and velccity of waves, Professor Airy’s tuble couples speed with di- mensions, .and, asa sample of his calcula- tions, it may be shown that a weve 100,000 feet in breadth will travel] at the rate of 588 -90 feet per second in water that is ten thou- sand feet, deep. This is possible, but itis difficult to accept such conclusions as exnct. At all events, there is nothing - more de ceptive than the height of waves. The tallest seas in the world run oft Cape Horn, where, whether the wind blows east or weat, they Vessel carrying it. Sucha Ja e have a holiday ground within a belt of 8 or 10 degrees, that compasse the globe without the intervention of x break of land. Any man who has run, before a etrong westerly gale around the Horn will know the muag- nitude of the sens. which follow his ship. Viewed from the stern when the vegsel sinka in the trough, the on-coming sea that is about to underrnn the ship and Jitt her soaring to the flying heavens will seem to heave its rushing summit to the height of the mizzen- top; but when the summit is gained by the observer, and the waves viewed from there, it will then be seen that thore crests which from the deck looked a long way up, will now appear to be a long way down. It isa common shore going phrase that the sens-run “mountain high.” The idea implied ts not very generally accepted by sailors, thongh the term may be sometimes used by them for convenience. The truth te, if waves were as tall as they are popularly supposed to be, no ship could by any possibility live inthem, They are lotty tothe fancy. be- cause at sea they are usually surveyed from low freebourds. ‘I'o a spectator on a steamer with a six-foot height of side, an Atlantic or Pacific aurge would necessarily appear asa mountain as compared to the aspect it would tuke from the deck of an old line-of-battle ship, with a thirty-foot “dip,” or from one of those lofty, glazed, snd castellated which in former times took six structures months to jog soburly from the Uhames to the Hooghly.—London “Te LIGHTS AND FOG SIGNALS, ‘The disvussion of this subject still con. tinues among seamen and. «a number of changes have been suggested. In a let- ter to the New York Herald, which we Rive below, Rear Admiral Ammen, U, $8, N, ‘tnakes some sensible suggestions. ‘Several methods of indicating a ship’s courée as well as her position iv foggy weather, lave been pro, o-ed, but the one given below seems ag simple and practicable as any ¢ The recent sinking of the ‘Tallapoosa through collision bas brought about a dis- cussion in your columns as to what may be done to lessen this the greatest danger of the reas. More than a quarter of a century ago I gave this subject inuch thought, and pub- lished in October, 1860, proposed modifica- tions of the *trules of the road” at sea. ‘To fulfill the object these rules must of neces- sity be univereal. Any modifications adopt- ed by any one nation that would contravene what now exists would lead more or less to disaster, just eo fur a8 they might tend to make uncertaip what now are the recognized rules. Any amplification that might becon- sidered allowable should include all that the present rules require, and, beside, whatever else is supposed to be advantugeous and which would not, In its execution, Jead to eGontasion.s 7) | “es NK: Ase an illustration, [ woald ‘say that tn fogs stenmers are required to whistle at in- tervals, ‘hia being beard by persons on. board of other vessels upprises them that they are in the vicivity of another Yeeseanith a vague impressson of the point wheiile' the sound comeez,and the increaged or diminished sound gives an idea that the vesec] is near- Ing or increasing her distance. “The, game is true with the fog horn, uged ‘on boar of suil vessels. ; There is no reason, however, why the steam vessels steering within four -points of north, as a central point, should not, make one long distinct blast; nor when her course is within four points of east, as a central point, che should not make two such blasts; nor when steering within four points of. south, a8 a central point, she should not make three sych_ blasts; nor when steering, in the same manner, within four ‘points of weet, that she should not make four blasts. This could be done automatically at small cost and made to Operate upon, any given number of revolutions of the propeller shaft. ‘The fog born could be blown in Jike man- ner toindivate the center of the-quadrant upon which the sail vessel was steering. This amplification of a-rule, as I would ¢all it, would give positive information, often of the most vital importange to: all concerned, and would be no violation of the {jireséd6é. ‘rules of the road” at sea. i In relation to lights of sailing vessels, I would say it the vessel was large enough to carry a boweprit cap lantern she could chrry. one far more advantageously than ‘the present prescribed side lighte, having a green screen fitted from akead to two points abaft the starboard beam, and a_ red screen over the sane are on the port side. But the same lantern would serve afar more useful pur- pose should the screens for colors be titted so a8 to let a white light appear trom right ahead to two points on either bow, the col- ored lights only appearing on the sides, after being more than two points on either bow and extending to two points abaft each beam. : Small sail vessels unable to carry a bow- sprit cap lantern could be fitved, as now, with side colored lights, but leaving un- screened, or white, the are from abead to two points on either bow. ‘This white arc would be of great value, as it would point ont where there was especial donger of Col- lision, and when it changed, by reason of the heading of the vessel from any point of view of an observer to the one color or the other, green or red, it would * the most precise manner point out the heading of the ern would, of xigting rules, course, be a madification of and alihough, in my belief, of \yery great value in effecting the safety of veesels, could not properly be introduced by us \without the concurrence of other nations.. They, however, could be intormed that we, had amplified the manner of whistling so a8 to indicate the approximate course of the ves- sel, and could propose tor their considera- tion the modilication of the headlight of steamers, and the side lights of sailing vessels. I have changed such parts of the ‘rules of the road’ proposed by me in 1860 as iow seem most advantageous, and suppose no difficulty whatever could existin whistlin; the course in operating the, valve by hand. he four quadrants could be remembered ag commencing with the north and going toward the east, and blowing the number of the quadrant on which the vessel was head- ing, should the additional short blast pro- posed in the rules to define more closely the pore steered, be regarded as too compli- cated. DEATH OF CAPT. CHARLES STORM. Captain Charles Storm, who has been act- ing as chief mate on the schooner Thomas H. Howland, was engaged in fixing some rigging on the schooner on Tuesday, the 14th, when he missed his footing and fell overboard. In spit, of the effi ris of those 00 the schooner to save him he was drowned.