The Hesper Irvine v. the Hesper

• Decision Date: 27 May 1887
• Citation: 122 U.S. 256,7 S.Ct. 1177,30 L.Ed. 1175
• Parties: THE HESPER. 1 IRVINE and another v. THE HESPER and others
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

122 U.S. 256

7 S.Ct. 1177

30 L.Ed. 1175

THE HESPER.¹

IRVINE and another

v. THE HESPER and others.

May 27, 1887.

This is a libel in rem, in admiralty, brought in the district court of the United States for the Eastern district of Texas, by Robert Irvine and Charles L. Beissner, owners of the steam-lighter Buckthorn and the steam-tug Estelle, against the steam-ship Hesper, in a cause of salvage.

The libel sets forth salvage services rendered to the Hesper by the Buckthorn and the Estelle, in pulling her off from the shore at Galveston island, about 25 miles from Galveston, Texas, where she had grounded on her voyage from Liverpool to Galveston, with a cargo of salt, in December, 1882. The answer of the owners of the Hesper avers their readiness to pay a reasonable compensation for the services actually rendered by the two vessels, but denies that more than compensation for actual services and time is due, and denies that the services rendered were salvage services.

Proofs were taken, and the district court, in April, 1883, (18 Fed. Rep. 692,) made a decree adjudging that the libelants were entitled to compensation in the nature of salvage, for the saving of the Hesper and her cargo, and allowing to the libelants, for the services of each of the two vessels, $3,000 and to the owners of the schooner Mary E. Clark, and men who had been employed to load upon her part of the cargo of the Hesper, and to jettison such cargo, $2,000; and, the claims of the owners of that schooner and of those men having been settled by the Hesper, it was ordered that the $2,000 should go to the Hesper.

Both parties gave notice of appeal from this decree to the circuit court. The libelants perfected their appeal, but the claimants of the Hesper did not perfect theirs. Some further proof was taken in the circuit court, and on the thirteenth of November, 1883, that court, having heard the cause, filed the following findings of fact and conclusions of law:

'This cause came on to be heard on the transcript and evidence, and was argued. Whereupon the court, being advised of the evidence, finds the following as the facts of the case:

'(1) That about 5:45 A. M., of the twelfth day of December, A. D. 1882, the steam-ship Hesper, bound on a voyage from Liverpool to Galveston, being out of her course, ran aground at the south-west side of Galveston island, about twenty miles south-west from Galveston, and nearly opposite the life-saving station. The Hesper was an iron propeller, and built in Hartlepool, England, in 1881, at a cost of twenty-two thousand pounds; her registered tonnage is, gross, 1,654 tons; net, 1,069 tons. Her freight capacity is 1,950 tons. She has powerful engines of 750 horse-power, with steam windlasses and winches, and on said twelfth of December was well found and well manned in every respect. She was laden with a cargo of about 900 tons of salt.

'(2) That, when the Hesper went ashore, her engines were slowed down and she was making about four knots per hour. She struck easily, without shock, and remained upright. Her draught was then thirteen feet nine inches. The sea was smooth, and there was very little wind. What there was was from the south, and the ship headed, when she struck, north-east by north. Kedge anchors were immediately put out to the east south-east, and efforts made to get the ship off in that direction, with the ship's engines heaving on those anchors. At the same time, a message was sent overland to Galveston, the nearest pr t, to the ship's agent, to send assistance.

'(3) That the agent of the ship applied to the agent of the tug Estelle, and procured that tug to go to the assistance of the Hesper. The Estelle was a long, narrow, deep boat, drawing about eight feet eight inches, and was the most powerful tow-boat in Galveston harbor, and had aboard the usual appliances of such boats. The Estelle reached the Hesper about 5 P. M. of the twelfth of December and reported. The master of the Hesper endeavored to bargain with the master of the Estelle as to the cost of pulling the Hesper off, but the master of the Estelle refused to make any agreement, on the ground that he did not know how much labor and time it would take. A line was then given the Estelle from the stern of the Hesper, which was then more off the shore than the bow, and the Estelle hauled on said line for about two hours, during which time the crew of the Hesper, with some four or five hands from the life-saving station, were throwing over cargo. No appreciable result came from this towing of the Estelle, and she desisted on the orders of the master of the Hesper.

'(4) That, in the mean time, the sea, which had been smooth, with very little swell, had become more turbulent, and there was a very decided increase in the groundswell from the south-east,—not so much, however, but that small boats were flying around the Hesper, and life-boats were running easily to and from shore. At this time of stopping hauling by the Estelle, the master of the Hesper requested the Estelle to come along-side, and run a heavy anchor out seaward from the Hesper, both to keep the Hesper from drifting further in, and for the Hesper to heave on to pull herself off. This the master of the Estelle refused to do, on the ground that there was too much sea on, and that he would thereby endanger his own boat, and thereupon the Estelle, taking aboard the Hesper's agent, who had come overland, proceeded back to Galveston, to procure more assistance. It was then found that the Estelle was making some water from a leak caused by a defect in the staff of the stuffing-box, which was not tight enough, and was worked loose by the strain in hauling on the Hesper. However, the Estelle proceeded that night [of the 12th] to Galveston bar, where she laid until morning, reaching Galveston wharves about noon of the thirteenth of December. The Estelle lay at the wharves repairing until the morning of the fourteenth of December, when she took the schooner Clark, which had been engaged by the Hesper's agent to lighter cargo, in tow, and towed her down to the Hesper.

'(5) That, on the thirteenth of December, the ship Hesper was lively, though still aground, shifting her position slightly, but not affecting her safety, some 450 tons of water having been pumped into her ballast tanks to put her down, and keep her from going nearer in shore, and her crew being engaged in throwing over cargo while waiting for assistance. And on the same day the agent engaged the Buckthorn, a steam-lighter, belonging to libelants, of lighter draught and power than the Estelle, to proceed to the Hesper, which she did, taking down a heavy anchor and cables, and two new hawsers, (the latter purchased by the Hesper's agent,) and a gang of men employed by the Hesper's agent, to help lighter cargo and generally assist, and also provisions and other necessaries, arriving in the night and lying by until morning.

'(6) That, on the morning of the fourteenth of December, the position and condition of the Hesper was much the same as on the preceding day, the weather being calm and the sea smooth. About nine o'clock in the morning, the gang of men brought down by the Buckthorn, after breakfasting aboard the Hesper, commenced to jettison cargo, and the Buckthorn carried out seaward and dropped the heavy anchor brought down from Galveston, in about 18 feet of water, connecting the same, by hawsers and cables of about 210 fathoms in length, with...