The John Perkins

CURTIS, Circuit Justice.

This is an appeal from a decree of the district court in a cause of salvage. The libel was filed by Nickerson, one of the crew of a fishing schooner called the Wyvem for himself, and by Thomas Lewis, master of the Wyvern, in behalf of the owners, officers, and crew of that vessel. It appears from the pleadings and proofs that during the severely cold weather of the month of February, 1856, the John Perkins, the Wyvern, and two other vessels were accidentally enclosed in á large field of ice, which extended along the shores of Massachusetts Bay, and continued to make…