A libel
in rem was filed in the district court of the United States
for the Northern district of Illinois by the O. S. Richardson
Fueling Company, appellant here, against the Hydraulic Steam
Dredge No. 1 for supplies of coals furnished to the dredge at
the port of Chicago, and which were necessary to enable her
to engage in her business. These supplies amounted to
$4,520.75, and were furnished between June 3, 1895, and June
27, 1896, which amount was claimed to be a lien upon the
dredge by virtue of the water-craft laws of the state of
Illinois. The Northwestern National Bank of Chicago
intervening as claimant, denied that the dredge was a vessel
within the maritime and admiralty jurisdiction of the court
or that it was used, or intended to be
used, in navigating the waters and canals of the state of
Illinois, or employed in commerce and navigation upon any
waters whatever; denied that any maritime lien or charge
arose by reason of the furnishing of the supplies; and
alleged that it was the mortgagee of the dredge by virtue of
a mortgage dated June 15, 1896, executed by the American
Hydraulic Dredging Company, owner of the dredge, to secure
payment of an indebtedness of $18,600, with interest, which
mortgage was filed for record in the office of the recorder
of Cook county in the state of Illinois, and in the Northern
district of Illinois, on June 18, 1896, alleged default in
payment of the indebtedness secured by the mortgage, and that
the mortgagee thereupon entered and took possession of the
dredge on the . . . day of July, 1896, and continued to hold
possession thereof until it was taken from the possession of
the bank under process issued upon the libel.
The
cause was submitted to the court below upon an agreed
statement of the facts, as follows:
'That
said dredge, at the time of the filing of the libel, was
owned by the American Hydraulic Dredging Company, a
corporation of the state of Illinois, having its principal
place of business at Chicago; that she was then lying in
the waters of the harbor of Chicago, in said district; that
she was built at Milwaukee, in the state of Wisconsin, in
the latter part of the year 1892, but did no work there
and, immediately on her substantial completion, was towed
on Lake Michigan from said Milwaukee to Chicago, in the
state of Illinois, being intended for work there; that said
dredge is of a cubical capacity of more than twenty tons
burden; that the hull of said dredge is a timbered and
floating wooden structure, corresponding in general
construction with that of other dredges used in the
dredging business, and of some lighters and scows, and is
flat-bottomed and without a keel, with perpendicular
sheeted sides except at the rear end, where it is somewhat
rounded to give less resistance when dragged or towed
through the water, and is partly inclosed and roofed over
above; is ninety feet long, thirty-three feet wide, and six
feet in draught, without any sail, paddle-wheel, propeller
screw, or other means for self-propulsion; carries no
rudder or steering gear; and is towed or pushed through the
water by independent means when occasion requires it to be
moved. In it are placed an engine of about four hundred
horse power, with four boilers and furnaces to supply the
same with steam, together with an eighteen-inch centrifugal
pump operated by said engine, with subordinate equipment
and machinery suitable for the operation of the dredge. The
dredge has geared to and suspended from its front end a
cylindrical metal pipe twenty inches in diameter, which
pipe runs to and is connected with said centrifugal pump at
one end, and at its other or exterior end carries a rotary
cutting apparatus operated by a small subsidiary engine,
which exterior end of said pipe with said rotary cutting
apparatus is so geared and adjusted that they may be
lowered to the ground surface or bottom under the water
where it is intended to operate the same, and, when so
lowered, said dredge is operated substantially as follows:
Said rotary cutting apparatus and said centrifugal pump are
put into operation by said engines respectively, with such
effect that the earth, sand, or gravel forming said bottom,
being dug out, loosened, or disintegrated by said rotary
cutting apparatus, is then at once, together with the
adjacent water, mixed with it, sucked up through said
exterior end of said cylindrical pipe, and is thereupon
pumped and drawn into and through said centrifugal pump,
which discharges the whole volume thereof, of which from
eighty-five to ninety-five parts in each one hundred is
water, through a continuous line of adjustable pipes,
twenty inches in diameter, to the adjacent shore or place
of deposit of the volume so discharged. That after arriving
at Chicago from Milwaukee, said dredge made docks for the
Illinois Steel Company at South Chicago, and excavated a
slip at Waukegan, Illinois, at which vessels could lay, but
was chiefly employed in the construction of a part of the
drainage canal of the sanitary district of Chicago, and, in
such employment, excavated a portion of the main channel of
said canal of over one-half a mile long, and from two
hundred to two hundred and fifty feet in width, and from
six to twenty-five feet in depth, through and over prairies
and meadow lands where said channel was located, performing
said excavation substantially in the manner following: Said
dredge was towed to a point on the Illinois and Michigan
canal where a breach or opening through the bank of said
canal into the adjacent land was
made by independent means, in which land, by like means, a
cavity or excavation was then dug out, sufficient in
capacity to admit the said dredge, which was pushed into
and occupied said cavity, after which said opening was
closed up, and said dredge disconnected from any navigable
waters. A ditch three or four feet in width was then, by
independent means, dug from this cavity through the
adjacent land to the Desplaines river, some three hundred
and fifty feet distant, through which ditch a stream of
water was admitted and flowed from said river to said
cavity in continuous quantities, sufficient to enable said
centrifugal pump to be operated in connection with said
rotary cutting apparatus. Whereupon said dredge floated
upon said admitted water, and began said operation, thereby
excavating and removing the earth in front of it, and,
being pushed or dragged forward from time to time in the
enlarged cavity thus opened up by it, made its way, and
proceeded in said excavation through said prairies and
meadow lands.
'That
last prior to the filing of the libel in this cause the
employment of said dredge was by the Illinois Central
Railroad Company to fill in earth for its railroad purposes
behind a line of piling on its grounds on the lake front in
Chicago, during which said employment said dredge was upon
the navigable waters of Lake Michigan, at the lake-front
harbor of said Chicago; and said filling was done by said
dredge pumping the sand, gravel, and earth from the bottom
of said lake, thereby incidentally and necessarily
deepening the channel of said harbor where it was located,
and depositing said earth, sand, and gravel, with water,
behind said piling on said railroad grounds; but the object
for which it was so employed was to fill in said earth, and
not to deepen said channel. That the coal furnished by said
libelant to the said dredge was consumed and used by said
dredge while it was so engaged in its operation of filling
for said Illinois Central Railroad Company, to wit, from
the 30th of June, 1895, to the 16th day of August, 1895,
when there was a balance due the libelant on account of the
coal used and furnished of three hundred and fifty dollars
($350); and from November 20, 1895, to June 27, 1896, when
the amount of coal so furnished as aforesaid amounted to
the sum of forty-one hundred and seventy and 75/100 dollars
($4,170.75), making a total amount due the libelant of
forty-five hundred and twenty and 75/100 dollars
($4,520.75) for coal furnished to said dredge as aforesaid,
upon its credit; and that said coal so furnished to said
dredge as aforesaid was necessary to enable said dredge to
be operated and engage in her said business. That in
connection with said dredge, and as one of the
appurtenances, was a scow, used on which to place and store
its supplies of coal, but not used to receive or carry the
earth excavated by said dredge, which earth was by said
method of its operation discharged through the pipes
aforesaid, on the adjacent land. That neither said dredge
nor scow was registered, enrolled, or licensed under the
laws of the United States, and neither has ever been so
registered, enrolled, or licensed. That said dredge was
operated by a force of about twelve men, working partly on
the dredge, and partly at the shore end of said discharge
pipe, and operating under the direction of a superintendent
and two foremen, neither of whom was a licensed master. All
employed on said dredge went ashore for their meals and to
sleep, the dredge never having carried either cooking
appliances or accommodations for sleeping. That said
claimant, the Northwestern National Bank of Chicago,
intervenes herein by virtue of being mortgagee of said
dredge, her boilers, engines, machinery, tools, furniture,
gear appurtenances, and said scow, there being included in
said mortgage also furniture and chattels located in the
office of the American Hydraulic Dredging Company, in said
city of Chicago, which said mortgage was made by said
American Hydraulic Dredging Company to said claimant, and
executed on the 15th day of June, 1896, by Lindom W. Bates,
its president, and by
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