SHIPS AND SWORDFISHES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 2223, 22 March 1869, Page 2

SHIPS AND SWORDFISHES.

The following ca«e was tried in the Court of Common Pleas (sittings at Nlni Priug, in London, before Lord Chief Justice Bovill and a special jnry), on December 9th :—

VK OARIH A!*D ANGTHKtt V. THE MEHCANTILK MA BINE ISSI7RASCE OOWPAWV (UMITHD).

Thi* vu an action to recover damages for injuries unstained by a ship at aea. Sir G. Honyman, Q.C., and Mr M'Lood appeared for the plaintiffs; aud Mr Milward, Q.C., and Mr Kemplay for the defendants. The plaintiffs. Messrs Do Garia and Arthur, were shipowners in butiuow at Jttn"y, and they in July, 1803. insured their ship Dreadnought for 13000 with the defendants for a year. Just before this the veaiel was thoroughly repaired, and was classed AI for Biz years. On the 10th March, 1804. «bo act sail from Colombo for London with coffee and other prod nee, and ail went well until the 13th. On the afternoon of that day they had several flab, lines out, and on the fort side they hooked a fish which broke the line, and a moment after threw MTcralfoetof its body out of the water, and was seen with a line attached. It waa a swordfish. The captain retired to bla berth at midnight, and at four the mate awoke him. and told him that the ship had sprung a leak. The water waa pumped out two or three times, and it waa found that she made from nine to ten inches an hour. The captain thereupon took the ship back to Colombo, and went thence to Cochin, where the ship waa hove down. Nothing was found on the starboard side ; but, on her being turned over, the surveyors discovered a nearly round hole, about an inch in diameter, and it went completely through the copper sheathing and the planking, but not through the lining of the ship. The captain brought home the perforated plate, and today exhibited it for the inspection of the jury. The case for the plaintiffs waa that the awordfuh did the damage ; and their learnnd counsel stated that swordfisb, either- from strong antipathy, or perhaps from gastronomic attraction, attacked whales ; and, not unfrequently, thoy mistook ships for whales, and attacked them Tho damage in this instance was within a foot or two of the keel, and the sum claimed by the plaintiffs was L 584 ss,

The defence wan, that the plaintiff* had foiled to iiliow how the injury to the ship had been caused. The hole which had bean spoken of, it appeared, pointed somewhat upward* and toward* tho atom of tho ship, and it paused diagonally through a throe-inch oak plank. No doubt swordfiah sometimes pierced ship* ; but when they did so, the sword broko off and remained in tho ship. It could hardly bo imagined that the Huh could withdraw against thepinoh of the oak plank, and especially bo aa, in this instance, the motion of the ship would tend to force tho fish against tho ahip, and not from it. Under the policy the plaintiffs could recover only for injury "caused by contact with lomo substance other than water," and the plaintifla had not shown this It was the fact that a false treenail hole was found on the starboard side of the ship, and it might bo that there was a similar hole on the port «ide; and that the copper having been damaged, perhaps by hearing the ship ovor, tho hole was raado to pass right through. Professor Owen aaid that he was acquainted with tho natnro of swordfhb. The sword was composed ol; the hardest bony substance known, and was covered with a substance still hirder, liko tho enamel of a tooth. Ho was acquainted of his own knowledge* with two instances of these animals hvring penetrated ship*. In both cases the swords were broken off and left in the vesseli's sides. The swords were in very tight The brittleness of bone was in tho ratio of its hardness or density. He knew of no instance of the aword having teen withdrawn from a ship's side, either of his own knowledge or from reading. The diffi culty of extraction would depend upon the extent oC wood that had been penetrated. One specimen of penetration was at Surgeon's Hall. In that case the vessel was an old (ran brig, and tho sword was found in broaking up the vessel. His own description of th h caae was that the sword had " penetrated tho coppor sheathing, felt, deal and hard oak timbers, to the depth of fourteen inched, and nearly that extent of sword has been broken off by the effect of the blow, And has been retained in the wood. Tho fibres of tho oak timber have been bent and crushed as by the passage of a swivel ball." A second specimen was in the British Museum, and was *imilar to this one. The vessel was an East Indlaman, and the sword had gone in at least fourteen inches. In the present instance, aa far a* be understood, the sword had penetrated three inches of wood, and tho point hid then passed into vacuity, and he was not prepared to say in that case that extraction bad not taken place. Had tho sword cone into fourteen, or even ten, inches of wood he should say that the fish could not extricate it. Ho should like to give an instance of a ship being struck, which instance came under the observation of Mr Hugh Cummings, a very distinguished naturalist and accurate observer. He had chartered a ship at Valparaiso for tho purposo of * voyage in the Pacific, to collect specimens of natural history. They got becalmed in the Bay of Panama, and Mr Cummitigs, about 11 in the morning, was writing in hie cabin when he felt a shock, an though the ship had struck n. rock. Ho rushed up on deck, and found that all tho crew had ruthed there too. The lead was thrown over at once, but there was no sounding within fifty or sixty fathoms. Attention was attracted to a great dashing in the sea over the bow of the vensel, and there they saw a swordfish 12 feet long. It had run its aword through the timbers of tho ship, and into a berth beyond. The struggles of the fish to extricate itself ended in its snapping off the swozd close to the head, and it was left in the timbers. Mr Cummings told him (Profosior Owen) that ho «aw the fish, which had killed itself by the rnpturo of vessels consequent on the efforts that broke off the sword, slowly descending, rolling over and alternately exposing its purplo back and (silvery belly. Mr Cummingfl returned to Valparaiso. There did not appear to have been any great danger to the ship, for the sword was firmly in. It had been calculated in Smith's "Maritime History of Maasachneefta" that the blow snowed as mnoh force as that of fifteen blows of one of tho largo double handed hammers; that it would require those blows to drive an iron bolt the same depth into the tun ers The Lord Chief Justice : Tho blow of tho gwordfish must havo almost the force of t> : cannon ball.

Professor Owen : Just so; in my description I compared the bio it to that of a swivel shot.

Mr Frank Buckland said that the great power of the sword fish w»s in forcing itself ahead; its power was in its tail, like the screw of a ship; but the fish oould not "go-astcm."—(Laughter) It would have some slight power in that direction. Mr Mil ward: But suppose that the fish was jammed by the head t Mr Buckland: I think if I hud atwordSsh by the beak he oould not go back. I have noticed with live salmon that th**y always try to go forward, not back. Whether »

swordfiah could extract ito beak from the side of a ship would of coarse depend upon the depth it had penetrated into the wood. If it were into tbo depth, of the breadth of on* 'a hand, I do not think it possible that the fuh could get it out. Ido not think that in the present instance it could have been withdrawn. The copper would clench the sword. The hole in the copper wu shown to the witneas, and he said, " The Bwonlfifcb, having got his beak in there, 1 think could not get it out again. I would not give much for his chance"—(A laugh.) He hid looked through all the books ever written upon swordnsh, and thcro was plenty of evidence of their having got their beaks in, but none of their having got them out again* Cross-examined by iiirG. Honyman : Yon never had hold of a live swordush by the beak, and tried whether you could prevent him going backward—a sort of "pull devil, pnll baker?" Mr Bockland : No; but I should like to. (Laughter). Sir G. Honyman : Of course you would not differ in opinion from Professor Owen ? Mr Buckland :Of coarse; no one can differ from Professor Owen.—(Laugbt-r.) Sir Gtorvts Honyman: Then I have nothing moro to say to you. To the Judge : Though a tish had no buskward power, there was conaiderablA lateral power, which might be used to wriggle a sword oat of a hole.

Some other evidence as to awordfuh having broken their swords in vessel* waa given, and several specimens of the swords were produced and examined by bis Lordship and the jury, and there were also two specimens in court in which the swords were embedded in ships' timber*. The jury, after considering the matter for a few momenta, said that they were all agreed that the damage to the ship waa caused " by contact with some substance other than water," and that probably it waa caused by a ■word flab.

Verdict for the plaintiffs. The amount of damages, it had been agreed, should, if neotsaury, be settled ont of court.