Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/537

 THE 6ABE CLEONK. 52$ �to await their return in the ensuing season, be pronounced derelict and liable to seizure by the first corner. Tyson ■v, Prior, 1 Gai. 133; The Aquila, 1 0. Eob. 37-41; The Bee, 1 Ware, 336 ; The Cosmopolitan, 6 Notes Cases, (supplement,) 17; The Barefoot, 1 Eng. L. & Eq. 661; The India, 1 Wm. Eob. 409; The Lovett Peacock, 1 Lowell, 143. �The vessel not being derelict, but, on the contrary, in charge of an agent appointed by the master, whose intention to return was known to Captain Eavens, the latter had no right to take, or attempt to take, possession of her. �To entitle a party to salvage, not only must the service rendered be meritorious, but the possession taken must be lawful. Cla/rke v. The Brig Healey, 4 Wash. 656; The Bare- foot, 1 Eng. L. &Eq. 661. �By quitting the vessel the master and owner does not lose lais ju» disponendi or right of property. If a vessel be found, though with no one on board, under such circumstances that the persons assuming to be salvors knew, or ought to have known, that their services were not desired, and they take possession with intent to supplant itbe master and o^neifs, in giving her relief, they haye no claim for compensation. "The Upnor, 2 Hag. 8; The Barefoot, ubi mpra; The India, 1 W. Eob. 406; The Amethyst, Davies E. 23. See argument of counsel (the late Mr. J. Curtis) in The Island City, l'Black, 126; The Champion, Br. & Lush. Adm. E. 69. �These authorities establish beyond controversy the princi- ple so agreeable to justice and reason, that unless the vessel bas been utterly abandoned, and is, in contemplation of law, a derelict, even honafide salvors have no right to the exclusive possession, and are bound to give up charge to the master on his appearing and claiming charge. See The Champion, uU supra. �It is not to be tolerated that a stranded vessel with a valu- able cargo may be taken possession of by a stranger who knows that she bas been left, but not abandoned; that she bas been put in charge of an agent of the master, and that the latter intends to return to her, and is actually on his way to her for that purpose; nor that the mere faet of placing a ��� �