Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/613

 THB OBMIENNIAL. 601 �Thb CsHTEmnAb �{Oireva Court, D. Mauaekutgttg. Hay 2, 1881.) �1. Dauaob to Cabgo — Kbolbct to Pouf Out Bhip — DKFBonTB �LnCBBBS. �A yessel is bound to make good any damage to a cargo of sugar which ma; have occurred through a neglect to pump out the ship, ta thxough a clogging ot the limbers by coal dust, or by sugar, or by both coal du8t and sugar. �2. 8ame— Patmbmt bt Undbbwbitbbs — AaRBBMBNT TO Rbfat aitt �SCM Recovbred. �The payment of the loss by the underwriters, af ter a libel had beea filed by the owners of the cargo, under an agreement that the libel-, lants should repay to the underwriters any sum or suma which they might recover by decree or settlement, in virtue of the unseaworthi- ness of the vessel, or the negligence of hei offloera or crew, doea aot afford a defence to the action. — [£p. �In Admiralty. Appeal. �C. T. Russell and G. T. Rustell, Jr., for olaimant. �E. D. Sohier and H. M. Roger», for libellant. �LowELii, C. J. The duty of ascertaining the facts of thia case is a difficult and delicate one. That a great loss bas bap- pened is certain, bat its canses are so obscure that every possible theory offered to aocount for it is open tomost plausible objections. �The three-masted schooner Centennial sailed from Cardenas, bound to Boston, on the twenty-eighth of May, 1879, with 800 hogsheads of mus* covado sugar, of which the greater part was the property of the libel> lants. The cargo was properly atowed and well dunnaged. According to the log-book, and all the evidence of the offlcers and crew, the pumps were tried every four hours, and the vessel made no water of any conse* quence until June 3d. On that day, at 4 o'clock in the aftemoon, there was no water in the hold ; at 8 o'clock of the same evening there were seven feet and a half of water there, and the ship was apparently in im- mediate danger of foundering. Both sets of pumps were worked all that night by all hands, and in 11 hours the water had been lowered two feet. Atter this, the crew being exhausted, they kept watch and watch, and the f orward pumps alone were kept in operation, and were able to prevent any increase above the five feet and a half until the vessd arrived at Philadel- phia, a port of necessity, on the sizth of June. Here the schooner waa pumped out, and her cargo was discharged, and it was f ound that some of her seams and butts were slack. Ko extraordinary injury was dis- ��� �