Pacific Coast Co. v. Reynolds

• Citation: 114 F. 877
• Decision Date: 17 March 1902
• Docket Number: 696.
• Parties: PACIFIC COAST CO. v. REYNOLDS et al.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

114 F. 877

PACIFIC COAST CO. v. REYNOLDS et al.

No. 696.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

March 17, 1902

Geo. W Towle, Jr., for appellant.

Fred W Fry, J. D. Jones, L. H. Wheeler, and Wm. J. Tuska, for appellees.

Before GILBERT and ROSS, Circuit Judges, and HAWLEY, District Judge.

ROSS Circuit Judge.

The following statement of the case by counsel for the appellant is not questioned by counsel for the appellees: On and prior to the 23d day of January, 1898, the Pacific Coast Company, a corporation, was the owner of the American registered steel steamship Corona, 230 feet long, 35 feet beam, 14 feet mean draft of water when fully loaded, and of 1,492 gross, and 996 net, registered tons measurement. That steamer, on January 23, 1898, and while on a voyage from Seattle to Juneau, and elsewhere in Alaska, with a full cargo and 250 passengers ran upon a then unknown reef of rocks near Lewis Island, in Arthur's Passage and British Columbia waters, where she thereafter lay, stranded and helpless, until rescued by her owners. The point where the steamer was stranded is in latitude 54 degrees north, and was exposed to the severe gales which, in the winter season prevail in that locality. The reef upon which the steamer was stranded extends out from Lewis Island for a little more than 1,200 feet, and is, at ordinary low tide, entirely submerged. At the extreme run out, that is, at the full and change of the moon, one small point of the reef, about 3 feet in diameter, projects about 6 inches above water. Where the Corona lay there was 12 feet of water above the reef at low tide. The tide, at this point, always runs in the same direction, and rises and falls about 25 feet. Where the steamer struck was about 1,200 feet from the shore of Lewis Island, which is there precipitous, and within about 15 feet of the extreme end of the reef. The reef at that point is about 40 feet wide, with an abrupt drop, on the northerly side, of 30 feet, and on the southerly side of 35 feet. The position of the Corona on the reef was such that had she shifted her position slightly she might have capsized and gone out of sight. In stranding, the steamer seriously damaged her keel, frames, and plates, breaking jagged holes in her bottom and bilges, and she lay across the reef with her stern depressed at an angle of about 30 degrees, and with a port list of about 20 degrees the tide ebbing and flowing through the steamer, which was submerged, at high tide, to within about 30 feet of her stem, and at low tide to about amidships. The keel of the steamer at the stern, the lowest point outside the reef, did not touch bottom by some 8 or 10 feet. After the steamer was stranded her passengers were landed on Lewis Island and there cared for until another steamer, the Oregon, came along, when they were placed on board of that vessel, and, at an expense of $2,500, forwarded to destination. The master of the Corona and her mate, a watchman, and four seamen remained by the Corona, living in a shack on Lewis Island,-- all of the houses having been washed off the Corona in the heavy gales there prevailing,-- until the arrival of Capt. C. M. Goodall, on February 15, 1898. Prior to going there Capt. Goodall, acting for the owner of the Corona, had, at an expense of $17,000, procured a wrecking outfit, consisting of a small steamer, the Maude, and divers, engines, pumps, etc., at Victoria, B.C., but could not, owing to the Alaskan mining fever then on at Dawson, get a suitable steamer for the work, and for assistance was obliged to rely upon such Indians and squaw men as could be found near the wreck. With such assistance, and under such conditions, the work of rescue was prosecuted, with the result that the Corona was, on March 3, 1898, so far pumped out as to float, but she then listed so far over onto the steamer that was secured to tow her to the beach when she should float that the master of that steamer cut his lines and left the Corona to go where she would. So left, the Corona, by the greatest of good fortune, as it then appeared, swung around and landed longitudinally on the reef, with her stern resting about where her midships section had before rested, and her bow towards the shore of Lewis Island. On March 7, 1898, the water was again pumped from the Corona so that she floated, and, by the assistance of two steamers, she was towed to Irving, on the Skeena river, six or seven miles distant, to get her in a more sheltered position, so that her cargo could be shifted and her patchwork made sufficiently secure to justify an effort to tow the Corona to Port Townsend. Towing to Irving was, as testified by Capt. Goodall, an extremely hazardous undertaking, as the holes in the bottom were only stopped with waste stuck through the bottom, and the slipping out of one piece of waste would probably have resulted in the total loss of the Corona. The cost of getting the Corona to Irving was $19,500. At Irving the cargo was shifted, and the waste in the holes in the bottom strengthened by cement backings from the inside, and, a tugboat of sufficient power having been secured from Victoria, the Corona was towed to Port Townsend, where she arrived on March 17, 1898. At Port Townsend the Corona was still leaking so badly that the divers' services were there needed, and it was with difficulty that the steamer's pumps handled the water so as to keep her afloat. After reaching Port Townsend the Corona was placed on the dry dock, at Quartermaster Harbor, where a survey was had and such temporary repairs made as were necessary to enable the steamer, at considerable risk, to be towed to San Francisco, the only place where the needed repairs could be made. The cost of getting the Corona from her stranded position to Port Townsend was $23,500, and the time consumed was from February 2 to March 17, 1898. The Corona was afterwards towed to San Francisco, and the total cost of getting the steamer from her stranded position to San Francisco was $35,624.38. At San Francisco the hull, machinery, etc., of the Corona were thoroughly repaired, the steamer restored to her prior condition as far as possible at the Union Iron Works, at a cost for such repairs, exclusive of furnishings, of $94,403.96, or a total cost, including expenses of raising and towing and temporary repairs, of $130,028.34. There was also expended by the Pacific Coast Company, 'for fittings, furniture, and supplies, to replace those lost by the stranding,' the further sum of $17,983.63. The value of the Corona after she was so repaired and refurnished was $120,000. On April 6, 1899, many suits having been commenced against the Pacific Coast Steamship Company to recover damages for losses alleged to have been sustained as the result of the stranding, the last-named company and the Pacific Coast Company filed in the district court of the United States for the Northern district of California their several petitions for a limitation of their liability in the premises, and thereafter such proceedings were had, on notice, as provided by the court, to all parties interested, that on May 16, 1899, the said court, by its order, directed an appraisement of the Corona, and her freight pending, and of the several interests of the petitioners therein, to be made, and referred the matter of such appraisements to George E. Morse, Esq., as a commissioner to take testimony, make findings, and report thereon. Pursuant to that order the taking of testimony was commenced on July 10, 1899, and thereafter such proceedings were had that the said commissioner, on April 18, 1900, filed, in open court, his report and his...