Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/476

 464 FEDERAL REPORTER. �and returned to her station. The damages by fire were so slight that the consignees of the freight received it without any claims for losses. A few days later the owners of the Protector filed a libel for salvage. �M. M. Cohen, for libellant. �A. Micon, for claimant. �BiLLiNGS, D. J. A large amount of testimony has been taken in this case to ascertain the amount of services that were rendered by the Protector, and the cireumstances under whioh they were rendered. The statements of the witnesses are very conflicting, but this much seems to be fully estab- lished : that although a bell was rung several times, and the Protector, thinking it an alarm-bell, responded to it, yet the captain of the burning boat absolutely refused to aecept the aid of the libellant's boat. This, I think, it was competent for him to do. If the master of a burning vessel prefers to allow her to burn rather than to permit outside parties to ex- tinguish the fiames, he may do so. He has a perfect right to decline any assistance that may be offered him : he should not be assisted against his will. �Even if the crew of the Protector had rendered any serv- ices, which, it appears, they did not do, after having been ordered off by the captain of the Chouteau, they could not claim anything for such services. At first I was in some doubt as to whether the Protector was not entitled to recover the value of the fuel used in getting up steam, and for the labor employed in going to where the Chouteau was lying. Had she merely gone to the scene of the fire, offered her serv- ices in the usual manner, and, on the refusai of the captain of the burning vessel to aecept them, returned to her wharf, I should have allowed her something for the labor and fuel expended in doing thus much; but the subsequent unjusti- fiable conduct of her crew in endeavoring to force their aid on an unwilling subject, deprived her of the right to demand compensation for what little she did do. ����