Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/535

 THB BARi oikoiiEi 523 �h&j, and had a chance, to taike charge of the vessel." ; €ap- tain Nye testifies that the faet that he had takien conlinarid bf the Mount WoUaston with th& intention bf effecting the'Sal- vage of the cargo of the Cleetie was weli known, he thinks,to every ship-master and bfficer at this pOrt omplbyed in the northern whaling and trading business; and he states that he communicated his intentions to Mr. Goffih, an aoqaaint-- ance of 15 years' standing, and who was then chief clerk to Mr. Merrill — a statement which Mr. Coffin has not been oalled to contradiot. �On the whoie, the evidence, in my judgment, leads unmis- takably to the conclusion that Captain Eaveus went itito St. Lawrence bay with the expectatioii of there finding the Cle- oue; that he knew she had been left in charge of a native chief by Captain Nye, and that the latter intended to return to her to recover his prbperty, and was then on his way thither; that when he put a man on board of her it was not with a view of then entering on a aalvage service. This waa obviously impractieable, as the iee preveuted Mm from get- ting nearer to her with his own vessel than eight miles. His design was to take possession of the vessel, and to secure some sort of lien or right to take her cargo,tb the exclusion of her owner, at a future time, and whenever circumstances and his own convenience might permit. �The presence of Fagin on board contributed in no degree to the security of the vessel and her cargo. During the eight months that she had lain there the depredations bf the na- tives had been insignificant, and even these were by Indians from the interior, and not by those to whose chief the charge of the vessel had been entrusted. The sealing and fishing season had arf ived, and the Indians were no longer in want of food, and the oil in the hold, irubedded in ice six or eight feet thick, was praetically inaccessible to them. To obtairi it Captain Nye was obliged to have recourse to dynamite. It thus appears not only that no part of the property was saved by Captain Ravens, but that nothing waa done by him which contributed appreciably to its safety, or enabled (Captain Nyo to eiieet the subsequent salvage. It is true that Fagin nailed ��� �