Hanson v. Rowell

SPRAGUE, District Judge.

It is insisted that the libellant has forfeited all wages, by abandoning the ship. It is likened to the case of the mariners leaving a wreck, which becoming derelict, is afterwards saved by oilier hands. Lewis v. The Elizabeth & Jane [Case No. 8,321).

There is some force in the analogy, but it is not close enough to control the present case. The act of the libellant, in leaving the Sumatra, was not one of deliberation, but a sudden impulse, from the instinct of self preservation. In the night time, at sea, the Sumatra came in sudden collision with a much larger ship;…