219 F. 714 | 2d Cir. | 1914
The Richmond, attended by two tugs, the Arrow and Starbuck, was lying at anchor in the East river near Twenty-Eighth street, New York, when fire was discovered in between decks of the engine room and in the cargo of lumber at a point just forward of the engine room bulkhead.
Her master at once sent the Arrow away to summon the municipal fire boat. The Arrow, instead of proceeding towards the berth of the fire boat, headed across the river for Newtown Creek, intending to telephone for the latter. Thereupon the Richmond and, by her orders or with her consent, her attendant tug the Starbuck, blew alarm signals, which they say were intended to recall the Arrow and summon the fire boat. These signals, however, were in fact a general alarm, to which many nearby tugs, including the Florence, responded. When the Florence arrived, hose from the Starbuck had been passed aboard the Richmond, through a coaling port in the port side of the ship, and thence led, by some of the ship’s company, to a hatch a few feet forward of the port, through which water was discharged into a lower compartment to check the spreading of the fire in a part of the cargo. Two lines of hose of the Richmond herself had also been put in commission, one down the starboard hatch, the other down a hole chopped in the deck just over the fire, also the steam of a perforated pipe. The Florence came alongside near the Starbuck. She did not make fast to the Richmond, but held her stem against the steamship’s side, while one of her crew stood on the stem holding the nozzle of her hose in
First. Her master’s story is fully corroborated by the engineer of the Richmond and the master of the Starbuck.
Second. The witnesses from the Florence endeavored in their testimony to create the impression that her hose was put on board the Richmond, as the Starbuck’s was. Persistent cross-examination alone forced them to admit that the hose was never on board the Richmond, but that all that entered the port was the business end of the nozzle and the stream of water.
Third. Corroboration of the story of the captain of the Richmond that he did not want the Florence’s stream and tried to have it removed is found in the circumstance that he also objected to the tug Reichert throwing a streám aboard and told her master to "desist doing so. This the master of the Reichert himself admits. He desisted as soon as requested.
Fourth. It was quite natural for the master of the Richmond to ask the Florence to remove her stream, because it was doing more harm than good. From the coaling port through which it entered it merely played across an alleyway, struck against the bulkhead of the engine house, splashed and fell on the deck, some distance away from the hatch through which the Starbuck’s hose was discharging. Most of the water went down the scuppers, some little perhaps down the hatch. Moreover, it interfered with the men who were working in the alley, wetting them, and sometimes knocking them about.
For services rendered in response to the alarm which she might fairly take as addressed to herself with others, the Florence might be entitled to salvage, for the fire was a serious one; but certainly she ought not to be awarded anything for continuing to play her hose either into the alleyway or against the side of the ship, after she had been told that her services were not wanted, and that her throwing a stream into the alleyway was interfering with the fire fighters on board.
. The decree is reversed, with costs.