Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/937

 922 FEDERAL REPORTER. �in this cause. It appears from the evidence that the steam-boat Wheeless, about 15 minutes after the flanjes were seen from the shooner B. C. Terry, floated from the wharf in the direction of the schooner, then lying at anchor near the middle of the river, with her bow up stream, and struck her on the port bow abreast the f ore-riggiug ■ that as the Wheeless approached ber she lowered a boat and got it ready ; that about the time the Wheeless came along-side of the Terry she was burning very fiercely, and set the Terry on fire, but the iire on the steam-boat abated as the burning cotton baies dropped from her, two or three falling upon the deck of the schooner; that the fiames from the Wheeless, then lying along-side, were flying across her, so that the oiBcers and crew could remain no longer on board ; that then the master, mates, Kates, and the rest of the crew left in the already-pre- pai'ed small boat, and subsequently took a position to windward of the fire. Shortly after the steam tug-boat Bramell had hauled away the Wheeless, the master, a mate, and one or two of the crew re^ turned to the Terry — no steam-tug being then present — for the pur- pose, not of resuming possession of or dominion over the schooner, but, on the contrary, as the master and first mate state in their tes- timony, they went on, board to bring away their own elothes and other property. The fire, however, was then so bot that they were forced to leave the vessel "without getting all their things;" and when they next boarded her the steam tug-boat M. T. White was lying on her windward or port sida, and throwing a stream of water on her from a steam fire-pump hose. Nor, on this visit, did the master or any of the crew resume possession of the vessel or cargo, or indicate any intention to do so, or assume any authority whatever ? The Bee, 1 Ware, 332. �Such are the most material facts on this immediate question, as they appear in the evidence, principally as they were stated by the master and mate of the Terry, and the witness Kates; and they being undisputed, and upon these facts, I am of opinion that this is a case of derelict, in the s«nse of the maritime law. For a careful perusal of the entire evidence, more especially on this particular subject, bas satisfied my mind that when the ofEcers and crew of the schooner left her, after the burning steamboat had come along-side and set her on fire, they abandoned and deserted her, sine animo revertendi, sine spe recuperandi. The Lama, 14 Wall. 336. If, however, this is not, in the exact and teehnical meaning of the term, a case of derelict» nevertheless it may well be considered a case of quasi derelict, equally ��� �