Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/490

 e76 FeDEEAL BBPOBTEB. �Complaint is made that the ship's company receive $750 more than the owners ûf the Etna ; that the ship's company were in the employ of suoh owners and paid by it, and did little work as compared with the Etna, and little increased work; and that the substantial service was rendered by the steamer, and not by individual exertions. It is also said that the meager character of the award to the vessel wi'U prevent owners of vessels from rendering salvage service; that the employes of the vessel are allowed to use the produot of the investment of the capital of the ship-owner to benefit them- Belves; that if the deoree below is allowed to stand as fixing a just measure of compensation to the ship-owner, ship- owners will instruct their masters to no longer attempt to save property in peril at sea ; and that, in consequence of the decision below, this has already been done by one of the steam-ship lines from the port of New York. These are not commendable suggestions, and it is not to be supposed that other ship-owners will follow the example set in this case of making such unfounded and exaggerated claims as are made in the libel, culmiïiating in a demand for $150,000. If, on the real facts of this case as they appeared to the district court, and as they appear to this court, the consequences intimated shall be arranged for by those who threaten them, they wiU undoubtedly hesitate to carry them out, if from no other motive, from that of self-interest, lest they themselves may at some time be in the peril with their property to which they propose to abandon the property of others. The consid- erations suggested are of no force except to injure those who procure their advocates in court to put them forth, and ean meet with no favor from disinterested and impartial persons. �It is, undoubtedly, the polioy of the law, and it will be the aim of the court, to give a proper salvage remuneration to powerful and well-equipped steamers which render service in saving property that is in peril at sea. But the true charac- ter of the individual service must, under the circumstances of each particular case, be looked at. In the present case, the acts of the master of the Etna at the time ahow most dis- ����