AWARDON SALVAGE CLAIM

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19584, 16 March 1938, Page 13

AWARDON SALVAGE CLAIM

£155 DEEMED ENOUGH LONG TOW TO PORT (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, last night.. An award of £155 to be distributed among lh e owner, captain and crew of the fishing vessel Coastguard, which towed the Waiwera, another fishing vessel from the Bay of Plenty to Auckland, in July of last year, was made by the Supreme Court sitting in its Admiralty jurisdiction, on a claim ior £I3OO salvage. The plaintiff was the Australian Fish Meal. Oil and Hide Company, Ltd., owner of the Coastguard and the defendant company was the Waitemata Fisheries Limited, the owner of the Waiwera. The defendant company has also to pay £45 assessors fees, £ls 15s costs and disbursements and'witnesses’ expenses. The case, which had taken lour days, was heard by Mr. Justice Tali, ,vho had with him two assessors. The sum awarded was made up ol £3O allowed to those on the Coastguard for the loss of fishing, £7O for saving thr> ofn-go of the Waiwera and £55 for towage from Whale Island to Auckland. , , His Honour said he was inclined to hold that there was a custom among those in the fishing fleet to help each other when vessels were in distress, without the making of any cliaige excepting the acceptance of payments for oil or benzine. That generally held good for towage up to about 50 miles. In this case the tow from Whale Island to Auckland was much farther, and although there had been no definite arrangement between the masters of the Coastguard and Waiwera, there was a discussion among them as to recompense, and the Walwera’s master had said the crew ol the other should, at least, make wages out of the trip, or, at least, half of what the Waiwera’s catch yielded when sold at Auckland. On e factor which guided the cour. in its assessment of the towage fee was that the work was done on a rough night, and it was decided that some small sum should be allowed for extra trouble and discomfort caused to the crew of the Coastguard. It was considered that the total ol £155 was a fair reward for their services.