John Baizley Iron Works v. United States

DICKINSON, District Judge.

All the above proceedings were for trial purposes consolidated and heard together. The conclusion reached turns upon. a question of law. Prior to the act of Congress of June 23, 1910 (Comp. St. §§ 7783-7787) we had several accepted doctrines of the admiralty law upon the faith of which those concerned with vessels dealt. One was the familiar fiction, peculiar to the law maritime, that a vessel is an animate, sensate, and responsible personality, which could feel needs, and, having them, could supply them, and make itself responsible for what was supplied. There was,…