Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/493

e78 FEDERAL EBPOETER. �no definite rule. It may be by a ratable portion of the value of the property saved, or it may be a sum in gross. The value of the property at the time is not fixed by the agreement. It is agreed that the boat cost $4,000 and the repairs $2,000; that she was insured for $5,000; and that recently, in negotiations for her pur- chase, claimanta held her at $12,000; but what changes had been made in the value does not appear, or whether the boat was in fact worth that sum is not stated. It is agreed that the costs and repairs up to that time amounted to $6,000, and it is the value at that time and not subsequently that must be taken as a basis, if value is considered. It seems to me that, whether the amount be considered in gross or ratably according to value, $500 is .a fair compensation to libellant foi his services, The service was not long, nor is it claimed that there was much hazard. Libellant was the discoverer of the fire and mainly instrumental in the rescue. He is therefore entitled to a greater compensation than Stricker, who came to his aid. The watohman, whose dereliction of duty caused the danger, can claim nothing. �Libellant will be allowed the sum of $500 and fuil costs, for which let a decree be entered. �Beo same case on appeal, infra. ���The Old Natchez. �(Circuit Court, S, D. Mississippi. 1881.) Decision of the district court, ante, 476, afflrmed. �In Admiralty. On appeal. �Paedeb, g. J, In the summer of 1879 the steam-boat Natchez ■was taken to Cincinnati, Ohio, and dismantled, and stripped of her boilers, engines, and paddle-wheels. Her cabin was stripped of its furniture, her smoke-stacks were taken down, and everything that could be made available in the construction of a new steam-boat was taken off. There remained of the old boat the hull, the cabin, the texas, the hog-ohains, running from stem to stern, the fore and aft capstans, the stair steps leading from the lower to the boiler decks, her boiler deck, and hurricane roof. She was without motive power of anykind, and remained moored at Cincinnati until the fall of 1880, when she was purchased by the Vicksburgh Wharf & Land Company, and then towed to Vicksburgh, in this state, and moored to a landing ��� �