Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/791

 784 FEDERAL RBPOETER. �sel was hard aground, and could only be gotten off by unload- ing some portion of it. This unloading oecasioned considera- ble delay, which isone of the items of damage claimed bythe libellant. �The other items of damage are alleged injuries to the Tessel from the grounding and delay during the time required for the consequent repairs. The charterers were not them- selves putting the cargo on board, but the manufacturera, from whom the charterers had purchased it ; and, notwith- standing the misstatement in the charter-party as to the depth of water, I think it was the duty of the master of the vessel to exercise ordinary skill and judgment for the protec- tion of ail eoncerned. Because he did not find at the wharf the 10 feet of water guarantied in the charter party, he was not justified in allowing his vessel to be loaded down to an exteut which, in view of the certain knowledge he had acqnired, if he had exercised ordinary judgment, he should have known would entail unnecessary delay and damage. �He was aboard ail the time and cognizant of ail that was being done. It was his business to know whon his vessel was loaded to a prudent depth, and then it was his duty to go into deeper water and require the balance of the cargo to be lightered; and he had a right to be paid damages for the delay arising from the lightering rendered necessary by the want of 10 feet of water at the wharf. If the parties had refused to put the cargo aboard in lighters, he could have sailed without it and recovered full freight. �The master appears from his own testimony to have mis- taken his duty, and to have supposed that he could put upon the persons engaged in putting the cargo on board the re- sponsibility of determining when they had put in the vessel as much cargo as it was prudent to take on at the wharf. In this he was in error. At that time he had been several days at the wharf and knew quite as much about the depth of water as any one, his own soundings having shown him that there was only between six and seven feet at high tide ; and as to the capaoity and draft of his own vessel he should have known more than any one else, and it was for him to ����