Nathan Clifford

“ Shippers have a lien by the maritime law upon the vessel employed in the transportation of their goods and merchandise from one port to another, as a security for the fulfilment of the contract of the carrier, that he will safely keep, duly transport, and rightly deliver the goods and merchandise shipped on board, as stipulated in the bill of lading or other contract of shipment. ”

“ Owners of vessels damaged by collision, occasioned without fault on their part, and wholly through the fault of those in charge of the colliding vessel, also have a maritime lien on the vessel in fault as a security for such damages as may be awarded to them in the admiralty for the injury thereby caused to their vessel, and they may proceed in rem to enforce their claim for the damages, or they may waive the lien and bring their suit in personam against the master or owners of the vessel. ”

“ Repeated attempts were made at an early day to induce the court to hold that seizures on water were not cases of admiralty cognizance, and that contracts of affreightment were exclusively cognizable in the courts of common law; but this court refused to adopt either proposition, and held that the entire admiralty power of the Constitution was lodged in the Federal courts, and that Congress intended by the ninth section of the Judiciary Act to invest the District Courts with that power as courts of original jurisdiction ”

“ Clarke, was that of a collision, and the subject-matter in the case of The Lexington was a loss of specie in transitu, under a contract of affreightment. Viewed in any light, those two cases settle the question that where the voyage and transportation are over tide-waters, the jurisdiction of the admiralty is the same in matters in maritime contracts as in marine torts. ”

“ When properly brought, the suit is against the owners of the vessel, and in States where there are attachment laws the plaintiff may attach any property not exempted from execution, belonging to the defendants. ”