Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/433

 418 FEDERAL EBPOBTBB;, �shore in a heavy wind and sea; but, aside from this, she incurred no additional burdens or responsibilities. She was prosecuting on her own part the business for which she was in part designed, and was in the ordinary pursuit of her employaient, and she suffered no loss or injury in rendering the service; and neither the difficulty nor the Personal labors or hazard of the salvors themselves greatly, if at all, exceeded those in cases of ordinary towage in rough weather ; and other tugs were either near at hand or within a few hours' call. Many of the important circumstances, therefore, which often go to increase the amount of salvage compensation are either -wholly want- " ing in this case or exist in only a comparatively small degree. �On the other ha,nd, the large number of passengers whose lires were involved in thesafety of the vesael is in this case an important consideration, although by thc general maritime law, aside from stat- ute, the saving of human lif e, disassooiated from the saving of property, is not a subject of salvage compensation, but left tO the bounty of individuals; yet when connected with the rescue of property it is uniformly held to enhance the- meritorious character of the service and the consequent remuneration. The Aid, 1 Hagg. 84; The Queen Mab, 3 Hagg. 242; 2'he Emhlem, Davis, Eep. 61; The Fusileer, 3 Moore, P. 0. 51; Marvin on Salvage, § 121. Life salvage is now expressly provided for by the British Merchants' Shipping Act of 1854, §§ 458, 459; but we have no similar statute in this coun- try. The weight to be given, however, to this consideration, as in considering the risk to the vessel herself, depended largely upon the degree and imminence of the danger, the probability of disaa- ter if unrelieved, and the opportunities for other means of rescue. That the situation of the Plymouth Eock, when disabled by this accident, was in general one in which danger was reasonably and justly to be apprehended, is sufficiently manifest. But in attempting to go beyond that and to determine the precise degree of her danger ; whether she would have gone ashore if unrelieved; whether her an- chors and chains were insufficient and would have dragged, or how much or how rapidly; or whether, in the wind and sea then raging, her structure was such as to ensure her riding at anchor safely with- out further accident or injury, — much is left to conjecture and un- certainty amid the contradictory opinions of the witnesses. It was not, however, denied that she was not built for a sea-going steamer, nor that her rank for, a sound steamer was very low. If, therefore, the conditions of wind and sea were of any great degree of violence ��� �