Federal Steam Navigation Co. v. Tugs Savannah

*1294ORDER

LAWRENCE, Chief Judge.

In this admiralty action Federal Steam Navigation Company, Ltd. seeks to avoid the contractual exclusion of liability which immunizes the defendant towboat company from responsibility for damages to vessels as the result of acts or orders of its docking-masters in docking or undocking ships at Savannah. The exculpatory provision, which is generally referred to as the “pilotage clause," is similar to those used by towing companies in every port on the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific seaboards. When a docking-master goes aboard a vessel assisted by a tug he becomes, under…