This is a suit in equity, brought in the circuit court of the United States for the Eastern district of Missouri, by the Hibernia Insurance Company, a Louisiana corporation, against the St. Louis & New Orleans Transportation Company and the Babbage Transportation Company, two Missouri corporations, and Henry Lowery, a citizen of Missouri. The bill alleges that in August, 1879, the Babbage Company, of which Lowery was president and director, being engaged in transporting merchandise for hire on the Mississippi river from St. Louis to New Orleans, by means of certain steam tow-boats and barges which it owned, contracted with the firm of Gordon & Gomila to transport for it from St. Louis to New Orleans a quantity of wheat, 'the dangers of the river, fire and collision only excepted;' that it loaded a part of the wheat on the barge Sallie Pearce, which it took in two by its tow-boat John Means; and that, by negligent navigation on the part of the Babbage Company, the barge broke away from the tow-boat, and was allowed to drift down the river until she brought up aa inst a steam-boat which was lying at rest along the bank on the Missouri side of the river, and was broken and crushed, so that some of the wheat was lost in the river and some of it was damaged by water. The bill also alleges that in September, 1879, one Pleasants owned certain rye, corn, oats, and hay, which were at St. Louis, on the barge Colossal; that the Babbage Company contracted with Pleasants to carry those goods on that barge from St. Louis to New Orleans, 'the dangers of navigation, fire, explosion, collision, bridges, and all other known and unknown obstructions excepted;' and that the company, by its tow-boat E. M. Norton, took the barge in tow, and the tow-boat was so negligently managed that she drew the barge against an obstruction then visible and known to the master, pilot, and officers of the tow-boat, and the barge was broken, and allowed by them or remain, without any attempt to rescue the goods, and nearly all of them were lost. The bill also alleges that the plaintiff, as insurer of the goods in both cases, paid to Gordon & Gomila and Pleasants $19,633.16. The bill also alleges that in January, 1880, the Babbage Company, by Lowery, as its president, sold all its property, consisting of four steam tow-boats and thirteen barges, to the St. Louis Company; that such sale was without consideration, and fraudulent as against the rights of the plaintiff as a creditor of the Babbage Company, and that Lowery and the St. Louis Company had notice of the fraud. The bill waives an answer on oath, and prays that the court will decree payment of said debt to the plaintiff, with interest; that the St. Louis Company be restrained from disposing of any of said property until the plaintiff's debt shall be paid; and that until that time the plaintiff have a lien on said property.