In re Waterman Steamship Corp.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

CURTIS, District Judge.

On February 7, 1962, the steamship CHICKASAW, owned by the petitioner, Waterman Steamship Corporation, ran hard aground on Santa Rosa Island. She was returning from Japan, bound for Los Angeles, and was attempting a landfall on the south light of the island. It was a dark and rainy night with visibility about one mile, and the captain had been without benefit of a celestial observation for two days because of overcast. There was a substantial loss of her two million dollar cargo, although we are not now concerned with the actual amount thereof.…