Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/241

 THE LIBEETy NO. 4, 229 �of the committing o£ the grievances hereinafter named, and at the time of the taking of said barge so laden with sait in tow ; and by reason that said steam-boat Liberty No. 4 was not, at the time of taking said barge in tow, and during all the time thereafter uatil and if ter the sinking of the said barge as hereinafter set out, properly equipped with the necessary tackle, apparel, furniture, and rigging for the safe and successful towing of aaid barge, as in law she was in duty bound to be ; and by reason that, during all said time last aforesaid, said steamer Liberty No. 4 had no anchor on board, — the said barge Speed and the said sait were, on the ninth day of December, 1879, sunk in the waters of the Ohio river, and 2,101 barrels of said sait were wholly and totally lost and destroyed, whereby the said Ohio River & Kanawha Sait Company sustained damage to the amount of $2,501.25. �This shows clearly that it was not for a breach of the spe- cifie contract that the action arose, but for the wrongful acts of the defendant in failing to do as he was bound to do. If this be so, then could the owners pf the cargo maintain an action against the Liberty No. 4? Their contract was with the barge, it is true, but the owners of the barge had contracted with the steamer Liberty No. 4 to tow the barge with the cargo ; and the damage to the cargo is alleged to have been occasioned by the wrong and negligence of the steamer Lib- erty No. 4, whose duty it was to tow the barge aua cargo safely. I think The City of Hartford and the Unit, 97 U. S. 322, is authority for the maintenance of an action by the owner of the cargo against the steam-boat Liberty No. 4. In that case, Hudson S. Eideout and others were owners of the schooner Abbie S. Oakes, and Charles S. Eobinson was owner of a quantity of corn at Baltimore, which he shipped upon the schooner for Portsmouth, New Hampshire; that by reason of stress of weather the schooner, on ber voyage, was compelled to put into the port of New York, and that those in charge of the schooner employed the steam-tug Unit to tow her from her anchorage through the pass called Hell Gate; that the steam-tug undertook to perform the service, and whilst upon the route they came in sight of the steamer City of Hartford, and the steamer and steam- tug were so negligently, carelessly, and unskilfully maneu- vered and navigated that the steamer collided with the schooner and caused her to sink, and that she, with her cargo and property on board, became a total loss, and the ��� �