The Florence

BROWN, District Judge.

The principal question discussed upon the argument related to the jurisdiction of the court The libel sounds in tort, and it was strenuously insisted by claimant’s advocate that no lien attached to the' scow for the conversion of the lighter, both parties conceding that claimant took possession of her without authority from the owner. Cases of spoliation and damage are of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. These include illegal seizures or depredations upon vessels or goods afloat. Every violent dispossession of property on the ocean is, prima facie, a maritime tort,…