FIVE FIGURE SALVAGE AWARD.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 795, 19 April 1910, Page 9

FIVE FIGURE SALVAGE AWARD.

,'■'■■' OLD -CASES RECALLED. The Salatis salvage heard in the Admiralty Division, last month is notable for eeveral reasons, but principally on account .of-the: award, which, amounted to 415,8?2,.. It is. certainly riot a.re-. cord, but during recent years it is very ■'seldom that..the Court is-in a position and decides .to allot such a large eum. In this case, according to English advices, there; were no, fewer than seven actions brought on. behalf of the salvors, who were the owners, masters and. crews of as.niany. as :M : steam-hies; 'as well-as: '.a. big sea-going slighter. ..The values; of the salving vessels amounted to nearly jeiso,ooo, and their- crews numbered 138. Finally, there • were 16 counsel and sii firms \S solicitors engaged in the .case. Take.it all round, it.was rather a re.maik'able! instance of salvage litigation. .The;services were heavy; but not. 1 of "an' exceptional charaoter. The Salatis, a German steamship of .4763 tons gross, 'register,' was on a, voyage from South American ports to Hamburg,' when, on December '22 last she had . the- misfortune, to run ashore in the neighbourhood of Jury. Gap, between' Rye and Dungeness, where ishe. remained fast. Tug after tug o'ame to her assistance, but. it was only after five days' work that-at last, through the united effort of eleven of the tugs, the vessel was hauled .off. The judge held that the. eervices were rendered in bad weather—at times very bad weather—and that the; Salatis was saved thereby from almost ■ certain loss. Hence a large award was inevitable, and as the value of the vessel, her cargo, and freight was taken at between .£120,000 and, .£124,000, the reasons for. a substantial award can be understood. ' ■..' ■

Five-figure awards seldom occur in these days. ; In the last seven years there has been buy one—the Cererai .in 1907—when just .£IO,OOO was awarded on a value of .£72,000 : t0 four tugs and two steamships for towing that vessel off the beach near St. Albans Head. To'find an award as large as that of the Salatis one must go back ten; years—to the Waikato, in 1900, in which case <£16,500 was the sum given. . About that time salvors seem to have been doing'very .well, as in 1901 there were as many as three awards of ,£IO,OOO and upwards— the Sardonyx .£11,000,: and the Somerhill and the Chiltonford, .£IO,OOO each, whilo shortly .before this there was the Orotava, .£II,OOO award, and in 1902 there was another—the Gunarder Etruria—where; again' ,£II,OOO, was (awarded on a value of over ,£200,0.00..' The Waikato l ; awaTd was run 'fairly close by La Champagne in 1698, when £15,000 was given on • a value of Even' the Waikato, however, was not a record. In the case of the Glengylo, in 1897, .£19,500 was awarded. The amount in that case was not paid without considerable protest, as the owners or underwriters of the salved vessel fought the case-up to the House of Lords, but were not successful in getting any reduction made. To .find any other award on anything like this soalc one.must go back to 1874 —the Amerique In that case—a derelict towed to Plymouth in three and a-half days—on a salved'value of .£190,000,: the Admiralty Court awarded',£3o,ooo, but on appeal to the Privy Council this was cut down to JEIB.OOO. Going still further back, in 1855 thero was an award of .£16,000 in the case of the James Cheston, a vessel found derelict 2000 miles from land, and navigated to Liverpool in 18 days. The only other caso of anything like the same magnitude that can ■bo recalled is the Thetis, where the largest award of any "was given—iC29,ooo on a value of. £Ul,U§ That was about the year 1830. It was a very exceptional case, as four sloops of war were engaged for 18 months at the work, which was recovering bullion from a vessel sunk on the coast of Brazil.—"Sydney Shipping Gazette." . ' '