Felix Frankfurter

“ All that matters for our purpose is that there is a class of cases, no matter how narrow, which, if the cargo test of jurisdiction is applied, will be heard by the District Courts in admiralty when a vessel owned by the United States is involved, and in the Court of Claims when the vessel was chartered as was the Portmar. It is not our task, of course, to torture the Suits in Admiralty and Public Vessels Acts into an all-inclusive grant of jurisdiction to the District Courts. ”

“ Justice Holmes, for the Court, addressed himself, was whether an enforceable liability could have been created when those two vessels passed into private ownership, although no such liability arose when the collisions occurred. ”

“ The vessel here, the S. S. Portmar, and the voyage are those involved in No. 303, Calmar Steamship Corporation v. Scott, 345 U.S. 427, 73 S.Ct. 739, which was tried together with this suit. Calmar's claim against the United States is for additional charter hire and for the loss of its vessel. The latter claim is based on two theories. The United States, it is said, is liable as an insurer to the extent that war-risk insurance purchased pursuant to the provisions of Article 2.17 of the charter [2] does not cover the loss. ”