Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/827

 THE MAMIE. Sl5 �Beown, D. J. The Mamie was purchased by het present owners in October, 1877, as a steam pleasure yacht. She was an enroUed and licensed vessel of 15J tons burden, 51 feet in length, 9^ feet in breadth, and 4 feet deep. She had one mast, and an angine mth a cylinder of eight-inch stroke, no Btate-rooms or sleeping bunks, but a small cabin in which to carry passengers. She was used by her owners, ^ho were members of the "Lake St. Clair Bhooting andFishing Club," and was occasionally let for hire to pleasure parties, picnics, and excursiohs up and down the Detroit river, neàrly alwayS upon the American side, and upon two or three occasions she ran down to the Ohio islands in Lake Erie. Her only regulai? employment seems to have been in running up to the "club house" on the St. Clair flats on Saturday evenings, returning Sunday evenings, for which a round fare of one dollar -was charged. She had no facilities for and never carried mer- chandise of any description. She seems never to have takeii a clearance from the custom-house but once, and this upon a trip to Amhurstburg and back. Shë was licensed to carry 25 passengers, but generally carried from 8 to 15. Her crew consisted only of a master and engineer. Upon the day of her loss she was chartered for $20, by the parish priest 6f Trinity parish, to carry his acolytes, about 20 iù numbef, ùpon an excursion to Monroe and back. �The special plea raises the single issue, whether the Mamie belonged to a class of vessels -Within the ecope and purviôw of the limited liability act. Thete are no authorities directly, and but very few remotely, bëaring upon the question, and ï am compelled to ascertain by ànalogy, and by an historîcal reference to this class of legislation, what was the intention: of congress. A limitation of liability is entirely a creatuië'ôf statute. At commou law the'bwners of vessels wete liable'tô the same extent for the torts of the master andcrëw as other principals were for thô misîeiances of their agents. Such also appears to have been the case among the àùcient mai^itîhie nations, since no mention' is'niade of the right of abaiidon- ment (which is but anothef 'naine for a limited liability)' among; the earliest writers'. ■ .", ■ : . ; ����