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.