A SEA CASE.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 118, 16 October 1874, Page 3

A SEA CASE.

A curious claim has lately been decided by the law courts in the United States. Brady, a sailor, and some time third mate of the lost steamer Atlantic, who was on board the Pennsylvania when all her officers were swept overboard but one, and who then took the command and brought her into port, has been suing the company for salvage, having declined a present of 1000 dollars which they offered him. The District Court, Judge Cadwallader, has awarded him 4000 dollars, thus deciding a very nice point—whether a passenger who exerts himself both to save the ship and his own life can be safely and fairly admitted to the rights of a salvor. The objections to it on the ground of expediency are, as the Nation . points out, obvious. If the rule were well established, it might convert passengers in times of great difficulty and danger into intriguers against the credit and authority of the officers, who would make their exertions for the common safety a matter of bargain at the critical moment. Brady’s case differed from that of the engineer who saved the Great Eastern, in that the latter was employed or requested to act by the captain, while Brady simply obeyed the necessity of the case in tli e absence of the captain. The decisions, however, all run against the passenger’s right to salvage, and Brady’s exploit was too peculiar to make his success of much consequence as a precedent.