Tall ship dodging U.S. marshal

Press, 10 August 1985, Page 18

Tall ship dodging U.S. marshal

By

CAITLIN KELLY,

in Toronto

In July of last year, the 127-year-old Ciudad de Inca, the oldest sailing vessel still in active service, was one of a dozen eagerlyawaited tall ships from around the world which sailed proudly into Toronto harbour. The sight of her white wooden hull and canvas sails prompted cheers from huge crowds. Today, the other ships long since departed for home ports or other work, the Inca is still docked behind a construction site on the harbour, her twin masts barely visible above a crane hauling earth for luxury condominiums being built at the water’s edge. Because of the action of a Miami lawyer acting on behalf of several Antiguan families, the British-owned, Spanish-built piece of floating history has remained legally trapped for more than a year in Canadian waters. Th legal tangle began on June 3, 1984, when the tall ship Marques sank off the coast of Bermuda; 19 people aboard, including the skipper and navigator, were drowned.

Both the Marques and the Ciudad de Inca were run by the China Clipper Society, which represents the co-owners, who in-

elude a formr Royal Navy officer, Mark Litchfield, of Maidstone, Kent. The families of five Antiguan crew members drowned in the Marques brought suit against Mr Litchfield in the United States courts, charging him with negligence and operating an unseaworthy ship. Under United States Federal law, the Ciudad de Inca could be sized under a “writ of foreign attachment” as security for the suit, if it enters United States waters. A Unites States marshal could climb aboard and nail a writ to its mast. It is fear of this that keeps the ship stuck at Toronto, because its normal route back to the open sea would take it through United States waters down the St Lawrence Seaway. Mr Litchfield, who also runs a swimming pool company, is bitter and frustrated by the chase. He is now in Toronto for two weeks to skipper the boat, settle business, and collect more legal advice. In an interview last week he said he had spent “tens of thousands” on legal fees as lawyers of three countries try to untangle Canadian, British and United States maritime law.

The Inca, built as an oceangoing vessel, would normally now be cruising the Atlantic seaboard earning big money by visiting ports. Instead, it putters about Lake Ontario, taking groups of 50 sightseers on evening cruises. The money thus earned covers operating expenses, but does not begin to add up to the $60,000 Mr Litchfield says that he needs to get his boat out of Canada — by hauling it out of the water and on to a flatbed truck, driving it overland past the locks, and sailing out of Canadian water further east along the St Lawrence River. The only other possibility would be to sail the ship up the Rideau canal to Ottawa, Ontario, and reenter the St Lawrence River further east. This would make Canadian history by using the canal for the purpose for which it was built in 1826 — to escape the American authorities. “I’d rather have nothing to do with the fact that 19 people died on a boat that had something to do with me,” Mr Litchfield said. The Miami lawyer, Douglas Skinner, says he is sorry that he failed to nab Mr Litchfield last summer when the Inca crossed Lake Ontario as part of a tall ships’ race. She approacheed Ro-

chester, New York, then turned and headed back into the lake: someone had warned the skipper that a United States marshal was waiting. The case stands out because, under American law, seamen historically have been given greater protection than other citizens. The standard assumption of risk most people take by climbing into a car, for example, cognisant of the hazards, is waived somewhat for professional sailors, Mr Skinner says. “Sailors were often uneducated, intemperate, improvid — and the court recognises all these things.” As a result, the burden of proof that the Marques was seaworthy lay more heavily than usual on Mark Litchfield, as the ship’s operator. Canadian authorities have no jurisdiction and Mr Litchfield cannot be extradited because the action brought against him is civil, not criminal. Until the Ciudad de Inca enters American waters, Mr Skinner is powerless. Until Mr Litchfield raises the money to remove the vessel without taking it through United States waters, it remains trapped. Copyright — London Observer Service.