264; The Jane, ibid. 343; and The Martha, 3 ibid. 436; and together sustain the following propositions:

Parties, not personally and actively engaged in effecting a salvage service, were not formerly entitled to participate in a salvage recompense. The Vine, supra.

But for actual losses sustained, as for supplying sails, or furnishing stores to ships or crews in distress, owners may be remunerated. The Baltimore, 2 Dods. 138.

So, for diversion from employment; or experiencing special mischief; or inconvenience occasioned by deviation. The Vine, supra.

So, by incurring loss, with consequential risk, by detention, damage, or expense, owner's claim for remuneration may be well founded. The Jane, supra. And for services rendered, but attended with risk to owner's property, the owners of a salving ship may be allotted a portion of the salvage awarded. The Salacia, supra. And here, I think, occurs, for the first time, the designation of a salving ship.

But, in The Blendenhall, 1 Dods. 417, owners were judicially deemed to possess sufficient interest to have a locus standi for the purpose of opposing a claim of a joint salvor; and, finally, in the case of The Haidee, 1 Notes of Cases, 598, the owner of a salving vessel was considered a not unfit person to originate a suit for salvage.

This brief preliminary view of the law and earlier authorities readily and naturally conducts the student to the general investigation and consideration of the problem, under what circumstances and to what extent owners as such may be treated as constructive, actual, and meritorious salvors. And to that investigation and discussion, under the more recent authorities, I shall next invite attention.

All the authorities, whether of long standing, as The Vine and Branston, 2 Hagg. 3, n., or of a more recent date, will be referred to, at the hazard of being deemed by the critical reader slightly prolix; and perhaps unnecessarily so. But such is the interest and importance which surrounds this particular subject of inquiry in admiralty or rather branch of admiralty jurisprudence, at the present time, that a full examination of it does not appear to be superfluous.

About one tenth part of the 644 salvage awards collected in Pritchard's Digest, are to owners and vessels, boats, tugs, and steamers. As I have estimated it, about thirty-five cases recognize owners as salvors, and twentyfive the vessels themselves. That is to say, some judg ments and decrees for distribution disregard the old rule as stated in the Vine (supra), that effective personal service is to be rendered for salving property or assist ing persons in distress by other living human beings present on the spot, or at the scene of danger.

The owner and his ship do not come within this category; and therefore, to become salvors entitled to salvage reward, it must be by reason of an exception to the rule.

Under this exception, owners are deemed constructively to take the place and share with others, in salvage awards, according to their relative merit by hazard to their insured property.

The elements of their merit and claim will abundantly appear by the cases hereafter referred to, and commented upon. The doctrines extracted from them cannot fail to commend themselves to the great and growing interests of all mercantile men in our various commercial communities.

In The Thetis, 3 Hagg. 62, £17,000 was first awarded; but upon appeal, the Privy Council added £12,000, making the final award amount to £29,000. This is the greatest amount, awarded as salvage, in any known reported case.

In The Beulah, 1 W. Rob. 477, the salvage awarded was £500, of which £415 was for the owners. In The Waterloo, 2 Dods. 443, whole award £4,000, owners £2,000 of it. In The Hope, 3 Hagg. 423, awarded by court £2,000, to owners £850. The Helen, 3 Hagg. 430, n., £1,300, to owners one half, £650. The Deveron, 1 W. Rob. 180, £1,600, owners £700. The Carolina, ibid. 124, £18,000, for owners one third, £600. The Howard, 3 Hagg. 256, £2,000, owners one half, or £1,000; and in The Earl Grey, 3 Hagg. 364, £900, owners £450; and these authorities, with others to be cited, plainly indicate the estimation in which owners of tugs or towboats, steamers or sailing-vessels, are likely, in future, to be held by magistrates presiding in admiralty courts.

The most recent authority, The Golondrina, reported 1 Adm. & Eccl. Rep. 334, is not only significant but decisive of the principles applicable to the status and merit of owners. There the whole salvage allowed was £1,800, the owners share £1,000; the proportion distributed to the owner being much greater than in any previously cited case, except that of the Beulah, supra.

Owners, therefore, when their vessels happen to be employed for salving purposes, may justly become entitled to share in salvage awards; and, when so entitled, their proportion should be measured by the risk run, and intrinsic merit of the service rendered by their vessel.

In the time of sailing-vessels, the rate allowed to

owners was, as a general if not universal rule, one third part of the salvage awarded. But since Fulton's successful application of that mysterious power, steam, as an agent in propelling vessels up rivers and across the ocean, the admiralty courts have steadily recognized the superior merit of large steamers, and awarded recompense accordingly in a marked and emphatic manner. Lord Stowell led the way in such recognition; and for such service, the steamers Monarch, Solway, Jasper, Alhambra, and others have since been the subjects, and their owners the recipients, of liberal remuneration by admiralty and quasi admiralty tribunals, in England and the United States.

In enumerating, therefore, all who may rightfully be designated as salvors, the classification would be imperfect, unless it should also contain the names of owners, as possible salvors, when their property shall have been risked and employed, meritoriously, for salving the property of others. So it is required by recent decisions and modern usage; and the rule is entirely consonant with the now established practice in admiralty

courts.

Theoretically, according to the old text-writers, the mariner is the real legitimate salvor. Nevertheless, experience has taught us that there are occasions when an owner's property in shipping may not only be a potential agent, but an indispensable instrument, in securing and saving the property of another, or rescuing the crew of a stranger vessel. And when this happens, it is but just that the owner whose ship is so hazarded, should share in the distribution of the salved property, and, as co-salvor with the crew, largely participate in the salvage awarded.

By the maritime law, a master is permitted so to em ploy his owner's vessel; and at the treble risk of losing his owner's ship, cargo, and insurance also, by reason of such deviation for salvage purposes.

In such cases, it is good policy to reward liberally; and this policy is favored in admiralty courts; for the greater the remuneration, the greater will be the encouragement given to merchants, for furnishing masters with fitting instructions, in behalf of humanity, Christian charity, and civilization.

The merit of the mariner is no less, because the merchant's reward appears relatively greater. And though, by judicially decreeing to the latter a discretionary amount, or an aliquot part of the salvage awarded, it may seem to abstract somewhat from the mariner's individual share, yet in reality, the compensation of all may be much increased, rather than diminished, by adhering to this recognized rule and practice.

Moreover, the law encourages and adopts it as good policy; inasmuch as it furnishes worthy incentives to both merchant and mariner; stimulating the one to give broad and liberal instructions to his master; and the other to make the utmost personal exertion for the salvation of life and property, when at hazard.

The peculiar merit of a salving steam-vessel (or its owner), is, that the salving crew is enabled to go quicker and nearer to the scene of danger; be more sure of recovering from loss or rescuing from danger; and, withal, perform the service more efficiently and with less danger to themselves personally.

It is not then singular at all that the admiralty courts should award to the owners of salving steamers a liberal proportion of the salvage decreed, as good policy.