Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/251

 244 FBDBBAL EEPOBTEB. �In cases of this description the ship heraelf is held respon- eible for the failure of her crew to discharge a duty ariaing ont of the navigation of the ship, and owing to ail other ships and the persoiis on board thereof. In such cases admiralty courts apply to the ship herself the rule that "a principal is liable for the acts and negligence of the agent in the course of his employment, although he did not authorize or did not know of the acts complained of." R. Co. v. Hanning, 15 Wall. 649. "By the maritime law the vessel, as well as the owners, is liable to the party injured for damages caused by its torts. By that law the vessel is deemed to be an offending thing, and may be prosecuted without any reference to the adjustment of re- sponsibility between the owners and employes for the negli- gence which resillted in the injury." Sherlock v. AUing, 93 U. S. 108. �So, also, ships are oharged in the admiralty for a failure of their crews to perform contracts made for the transportation and safe delivery of the cargo of the ship. In those cases the ship herself is oharged because of the relation of the con- traet to the employment of the ship ; but the liability of the ship is not confined to cases arising from faulty navigation, or eut of a breach of the contract of affreightment, as waa said by the learned judge who rendered the decision in the case of the Germania, so greatly relied on by the claimants. But in ail these cases there is a duty on the part of the offi- cers and crew, as representing the owner, and in the discharge of the authority entrusted to them by him, and while acting within the scope of such authority, not be negligent towards the person to whom the liabilit/ is incurred. The duty may arise out of the fact that the vessel is being navigated, or is anchored in the pathway of other vessels, or has a relation by contract to the person injured, in person or property, and no -doubt out of other circumstances. Jennings v. Bark Ger- mania, Blatchford, J., MSS. March 12, 1878. �Such a liability, in my opinion, exista where damage arisea from the neglect on the part of the owner of a ship to dis- charge any duty arising on navigable waters out of the em- ����