Joseph P. Bradley

“ Adm. 117, 120, says: 'Now, salvage is not always a mere compensation for work and labor. Various circumstances, upon public consideration, the interests of commerce, the benefit and security of navigation, the lives of the seamen,-render it proper to estimate a salvage reward upon a more enlarged and liberal scale. The ingredients of a salvage service are-first, enterprise in the salvors in going out in tempestuous weather to assist a vessel in distress, risking their own lives to save their fellow-creatures, and to rescue the property of their fellow-subjects ”

“ A fixed structure, such as this dry-dock is, not used for the purpose of navigation, is not a subject of salvage service, any more than is a wharf or a warehouse when projecting into or upon the water. The fact that it floats on the water does not make it a ship or vessel, and no structure that is not a ship or vessel is a subject of salvage. A ferry-bridge is generally a floating structure, hinged or chained to a wharf. ”

“ The respondents pleaded, first, res judicata, alleging that a similar libel for the same cause had been formerly filed in the same court, and dismissed for want of jurisdiction. This plea was overruled. Their second plea was to the effect that the case is not one of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; that the assistance rendered by the libelants to the dry-dock was not a salvage service; that the dry-dock is not devoted to the purpose of transportation and commerce, nor intended for navigation ”