One Anchor & Chain

18 F. Cas. 698, 2 Low. 549

Opinion

LOWELL, District Judge.

There seems to be an unwritten law in the harbor of Boston, that whoever first obtains possession of a lost anchor holds it against all the world until his salvage is paid. Such a usage cannot stand the examination of the courts. This anchor and chain were not derelict in any proper sense. Their owners were known to the master of the Plover, and it was known that they had the hope and reasonable expectation of recovering it. This libellant might have been a bidder for the contract, but he has no right to make his bid with one end of the cable in his possession. When the contractor came down and was prepared to offer him twenty-five dollars, which represented the full amount of trouble which the libellants had saved him, they should have accepted the offer.

They were likewise bound to accept the offer of his steam winch, their own appliances being inadequate, by which they would have saved a day and a large expense. The net result of these exertions is that the true and known owners of the property have met with delay, trouble, and the expenses of a lawsuit, all growing out of a mistaken notion that possession of another man's property gives the possessor a right to deal with- it as he pleases.

The cases of ships or goods picked up at sea, in which there can be no reasonable ground to believe that the owner would ever have seen them again if the salvor had not happened to find them, have no application to an anchor and chain lost in a known spot within the limits of the port where the vessel is lying.

Considering that this is the first case of the kind, I shall allow the libellants the twenty-five dollars, without costs; though, in the next case of the kind, salvage will probably be refused. Decree accordingly.