Fort Myers Shell and Dredging Co., Inc. v. The Barge Nbc 512 and the Barge Nbc 540

GODBOLD, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from a final judgment dismissing with prejudice the libel-ant’s claim for salvage, which was entered at the conclusion of the libelant’s case upon the respondents’ motion for a “directed verdict.”

The facts before the trial court, by-stipulation and oral testimony, give the following picture. In early March of 1965, Edmonson Towing Company telephoned the libelant Fort Myers Shell asking that Fort Myers send a tug to meet Edmonson’s Tug Nellie in the Gulf of Mexico outside Fort Myers, Florida and there take over the tow of two steel barges belonging to…