The Northern Belle
Supreme Court of the United States
Appeal from the Circuit Court for Wisconsin, the case being this: The La Crosse and Minnesota Steam Packet Company, owners of the steamboat Northern Belle, and engaged in the carrying trade on the Upper Mississippi, undertook to carry for a certain Robson, in their barge Pat Brady, five thousand bushels of wheat from Hastings, in Minnesota, to La Crosse, in Wisconsin, and safely deliver the same, the unavoidable dangers of the river and fire only excepted.
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Appeal from the Circuit Court for Wisconsin, the case being this: The La Crosse and Minnesota Steam Packet Company, owners of the steamboat Northern Belle, and engaged in the carrying trade on the Upper Mississippi, undertook to carry for a certain Robson, in their barge Pat Brady, five thousand bushels of wheat from Hastings, in Minnesota, to La Crosse, in Wisconsin, and safely deliver the same, the unavoidable dangers of the river and fire only excepted. On the voyage the barge was sunk and the wheat damaged, and the Home Insurance Company, which had given a policy on the wheat and paid it,…
1Opinion of the CourtJustice Miller
As tbe decision of the cause turns upon the fitness of the barge for the purpose of the voyage, or, in the language of the admiralty, on its seaworthiness (a question which, as applicable to the peculiar condition of this navigation, is before us for the first time), we propose to examine into some of the principles on which that question must be decided.
For many years the grain which was transported by steamboats on the Western rivers was first put in sacks, and then placed in the hold of the vessel, or if that was filled, was laid around on the decks. But as this commerce in the cereals…
2Cited by40 opinions
- Commercial Molasses Corp. v. New York Tank Barge Corp.Supreme Court of the United States · 1941
- The CaledoniaSupreme Court of the United States · 1895
- Sacramento Navigation Co. v. SalzSupreme Court of the United States · 1927
- The Edwin I. MorrisonSupreme Court of the United States · 1894
- The Robert W. ParsonsSupreme Court of the United States · 1903
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