RACE FOR SALVAGE

Evening Star, Issue 19276, 15 June 1926, Page 8

RACE FOR SALVAGE

AT THE MERCY OF WILD SEAS Breen and white hillocks of wafer race poM, lhei}l. Carpets of boiling surf mark thisr labored progress." Misty ram in hanging. soggy curtains blare Unm into spectral ships. "Its passing reveals them again glistening plates, smears of met, swaying black walls ringing to the ceaseless pound of tho waves. Between them stretches a slender hawser taut as a bar of steel. Its vibrations shake off a cloud of salt drops. It creaks, it groans, it grates and screams across -wet steel. But always it hold-.? on grimly, wot and shining. The salt tang of iho sea turns to tho chemical tang of typewriter ribbons and ink. Marauding waves of green and white arc succeeded by wa-ves of pale blue documents with red lines, billows of flimsy dockets and certificates, a, stern wash of portentous contract forms with leering red seals. Figures march and counter-march. _ For in the world of shipping there is such a thing as salvage compensation—mundane after heroism, you may think, hut perfectly just and reasonable. In the midst of keen wars of freights ships to-day cannot be expected to go out on to the. foamy highways, like the Good Samaritan, to succor craft that may bo drifting helplessly, without some return for their lime, their labor, and the risk they incur in playing tho hemic role.

How is ibis return made? (says the Sydney ‘Sun'). In cracking Treasury notes, of course. But what is tho basis on winch compensation is decided? What are the influences that affect that amount, flint change, even the basis that guides tho whole financial transaciion. All ihc-so questions will be grappled with by grave, shipping men shortly when the Devon has safely moored (he battered Eastern Moon in .Sydney Harbor.

Once you set those newspaper diagrams showing where the disabled craft is, and how the e.s. Ibis” and tho “s.s. that” are racing pell-mell (o the rescue, you can ho certain that big money will change hands among the interested parlies any. thing up to a couple of years later. When a propeller is stripped or a crankshaft snaps, and a steamer has to drift and plunge amid wicked seas, her master radios his agents. If they can recover their helpless steamer and bring her into port by a tugboat they stand to save a lot of'money; so do her underwriters, so do the consignees of her cargo. This is because shipping agents make a contract, with a tugboat company to_ do the job. Tugs are hired by the day. They are not paid on result*, and the charge is in the nature, of general average. And, what is more important to the agents, thoir crew and their owners canno’u make the huge salvage claims that are launched by the masters of succoring summers Ihut loom up out of the mist* to aid the stricken vessel. If a lug fails to recover her quarry before the latter founders the owners of the lost steamer must still reimburse the tugboat company for the time involved. Under the maritime laws, however, should

n 1 ii!? ram to the rescue of a disabled steamer without any contract having been entered into with the agents or owners, the master of the tup can lodge a, claim for salvage in the same way as any other succoring steamer. But danger and stress of weal,her often compel a ship's master to accept aid from any strange steamer that hurries to stand by. It is (hen that the conflict of accountancy begins in earnest. Shame times it is possible for the captain of tlm stricken steamer to arrange with the master of the salvaging steamer for how much the job shall I’m? done, More often it is not. Then it, is that the master of the salving vessel is entitled to claim Mirage on the value of the ship and on the. value of her cargo at the port where his towing services end.

lie is entitled, moreover, lo have a lion on the ship and cargo at that port. lie is not obliged to release the salved vessel until ho lias received from her owner a security by which he will be able to collect any salvage money that later ho may ho, entitled to receive. Having brought the disabled steamer to port, the master of the, salving steamer may seek salvage compensation in the Admiralty division of the courts.

There is no limit on (.ho amount that nmy be claimed for calving drifting craft. Vet not, always docs the court award tho full amount claimed. Of its award onethird goes to the master and crew of the rescuing steamer, and the remainder proportionately to the owners and other interested parties. Disaster lurks in bringing two large steamers close together if there is a sen running. The tow rope is invariably taken to the disabled craft by a couple of seamen, who row from one chip to the other in one of the calving cl earner's lifeboats. This is a hazardous job, and those who carry it through are awarded an extra share of (he compensation that goes to the crew. How the amount, of salvage shall be borne by (ho interests associated with the salved sicainoi - involves often a couple of years’ work by the adjusters, to whom the underwriters pass the problem. The master of the distressed vessel is usually in touch with Iter underwriters during tin whole procedure, and it is when he claims for recovery of insurance that the adjusters begin their monumental clerical task.

While di Tiering circumstances may crop up, three broad rules guide the court in deciding the sum that is to be, paid in fialvago compensation., First must bo considered the imminence of the peri! from which the ship was saved. The second consideration is the value of the ship and her cargo. The third factor is the value of the salving steamer and (ho extent of the risk that (he ran in bringing the disabled vessel to port. So it is that greater salvage money would be paid to the owners and master of a 10,000 or 12.000-fon steamer that lowed in a stricken vessel than to, say, a 5,000-ton freighter, on the simple basis of steamer value. Yet, again, there might bo a case in which the cargo of a 5.000-fon towing steamer would be of such a valuable nature and would be so risked in the operation as to entitle the vessel to practically as much ns a 10,C00-to;;ner towing in moderately fine weather. And if the towing steamer snatched _ a crippled vess,el from the very jaws of disaster, say, within a few hundred yards of a reef or rock-bound ooast, its reward would bo adjudged more liberal than if it picked up the ship in fairly calm seas miles from any coast.

It is generally expected in shipping circles that the salvage claims arising out of tho saving of the Eastern Moon, which is valued at £60,000, and her cargo at £IOO,OOO, will bo probably the largest bundled in Australian waters in similar circumstances. It is believed the claim of (ho Devon will ho £5,000. One of the most recent of such rescues was ihat of the Japanese freighter Honolulu Ma-ru. There the light cruiser Delhi stood by the. disabled vessel, but an tho Delhi wns under the control of the Admiralty, which in effect is the arbiter ill salvage claims, no claim could bo made by her commander. The tug Champion brought in the Japanese steamer. It is accessary, however, to go back some yonis for the epic story' of. <hc living of a, stricken steamer by towing. In that year, long before tho era. of wireless, the Perthshire broke her propeller shaft. She drifted helplessly in the Pacific for several weeks before sho wns sighted by the Talune. In ibe face of heavy weather and great difficulties the Perthshire was towed to safety. Adjusters in Sydney are now working on* tiis claim of tho Ferndal© for standing bv the Boors ra when she blew off a cylinder cap in the Gulf of Aden. This case is interesting, because the Cotnmoniieajtb b'nc controls both ships. Another hu"e task now being undertaken by a Sydney firm of adjustors embraces the claims made, in connection with the fire on the Moldavia. In that case the contributory interests represented a total of £2,000,000. Claims against the Bessa. a Norwegian, freighter, which struck a rock on the New Zealand coast a few years back, were also adjusted in Sydney. Her cargo represented £168,000. With heavy insurance commitment* in Australian waters it is only natural that tho Sydney -Marine Underwriters’ Association should take measures to safeguard i(« intereMfi.

To do this it has assembled on© of the finest salvage plants in the Southern Hemisphere. At Gore Bay there is a collection of pumping, plugging, and pontoon plant reariv at any hour 'to he rushed, out of the harbor to a steamer t’-at may be pounding herself to pieces on our coast.