Navigating the Lower Saint Lawrence in the 19th Century.
| Lot 1. | The hull of the said ship as she now lies, or did lay on
the 23rd January last, including the masts and spars
laying along side having been cut away. 1 eight inch tow line. 2 chain cables, 120 fathoms each remaining on board. 1 bower anchor, 12 water casts at that time. 6 steering sail boom irons. |
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| Lot 2. | In store and house, within 10 miles of the wreck, the sails of the said ship, consisting of 2 foresails, 1 topsail, 1 foretop gallant sail, 1 ditto royal, 2 jibs, 1 fore topmast staysail, 1 fore staysail, 1 square mainsail, 5 main topsails, 2 main topgallant sails, 1 ditto royal, 1 ditto staysail, 1 ditto trisail, 2 mizzen topsails, 1 ditto topgallant sail, 4 mizzen, 4 topmast steering sails, 2 topgallant ditto, 5 boat sails, 2 remnants of canvass, 2 dozen skeins of twine. | |||
| Lot 3. | Also in store, fore rigging complete, topmast rigging, topgallant rigging, main rigging and stay, main topmast rigging & stay, main topgallant rigging & stay, mizzen rigging & stay, mizzen topmast rigging & stay, mizzen topgallant rigging & stay, spanker & jib boom rigging, complete; 1 pair bowsprit shrouds. | |||
| Lot 4. | Also on shore, 1 stream chain cable 90 fathoms, 2 bower anchors, 1 stream anchor, 3 kedges, 1 chain claw, 5 chain topsail ties, 6 chain sheets, 1 winch chain, 2 shank painters, 3 timber chains, 3 chain slings for lower yards, 1 cook's cambouse, 3 pair timber screws, 1 hand pump, 4 pump spears, 2 lower boxes, 5 lower mast head caps, 3 topmast head caps, 3 six inch warps, 1 timber warp, 1 eight inch hawser, 50 fathoms of lanyard rope, 50 fathoms of six inch crab rope, 1 buoy and buoy rope, 2 forerunners and ship's hooks, 1 long boat, 1 skiff, 1 jolly boat, 3 chains, 1 signal lantern, 1 pair of steel yards, 1 cabin stove, 6 log glasses, 2 cat blocks, 1 top block, 8 double and 8 single luff tackle blocks, 5 single topsail halyard blocks, 2 double and 2 single purchase blocks. |
| Lot 5. | 76 638 9 56 2098 908 275 |
The cargo on board said ship, consisting when she left
this port, viz: - pieces elm plank, pieces red pine timber, 22,000 feet, white pine masts, white pine bowsprits, pieces staves, pieces deals, pieces ash oars. |
Quebec Gazette #4458, 27/02/1833 Page 2, Col. 3C | ||
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| The Ship Mountaineer, Jackson, wrecked near Cape Chat, was sold, with her cargo and materials, last Thursday, for the benefit of the underwriters. Hull brought £64, materials £190, cargo £71. Total £325. | ||
| Quebec Mercury #57. Thursday, May 23, 1833. | ||
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Two schooners have come up laden with good from the Breeze,
wrecked at Point des Monts, are to return to her again. Ship Mountaineer, wrecked last fall below, and sold for the benefit of the underwriters, has been got off and brought up to Quebec. Brig Pekin, hence the 9th instant for Liverpool, with a cargo of wheat, is returning; the crew having mutinied. |
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| Quebec Mercury #82. Thursday, July 11, 1833. | ||
| LOWER CANADA - COURT OF VICE ADMIRALTY. | ||
| Wednesday, 10th July, 1833. | ||
| The Mountaineer - Jackson. | ||
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Judge Kerr. This action for substraction of wages derives
considerable interest from its having been ably defended by the
present owner of the Mountaineer in person, and from the
principles upon which it is to be decided not being perfectly
understood by many persons at this port who are engaged in
commercial pursuits. The Mountaineer, it appears in evidence, having a cargo of timber, sailed from Quebec on her homeward voyage on the 25th November last, and the winter having set in earlier and with greater severity than usual, she had not proceeded further than Cape Chat when she became surrounded with masses of ice. In this state she remained blockaded for eight or nine days, quite unmanageable, drifting up and down with the tide to the 12th December, when extricated from ice over which they dragged chains, cables and anchors to the land, and secured the ship by attaching her to the rocks. That the crew, through much labour for eight or nine days, and by exposing themselves to the cold, by which some of them were severely frost-bitten, dismantled the vessel, and brought the sails, rigging, cables, boats and stores on shore, where many of them were put in a tent of canvass, erected by the seamen, and afterwards, by the direction of Captain Jackson, carried to the stores of a Mr. Lemieux at St. Anne's, a distance of seven miles from the ship. That part of the crew afterwards came to Quebec in an open boat in April last, and the remainder, amongst whom was the promoter, stayed by the ship, and with men who were sent in the month of May last by Mr. Patton, put the apparel and rigging on board the ship, and assisted in bringing the hull and cargo to Quebec. This is the statement of occurrences in which six of the seamen agree. The ship was set up at public auction at Quebec, by order of the master, and bought by Mr. Patton, but at what precise time and for what value does not appear. Mr. Patton has objected to the evidence of the seamen, on the ground of their having a common interest in the event of this suit, but this is an objection which can only go to their credit and not to their competency, for it is a settled principle that seamen, even when they join in an action, may all be examined for and against each other, and by the practice of the Admiralty, parties themselves who have an immediate personal interest may be examined, so that in this proceeding, this Court is assimilated to a Court of Equity by obtaining evidence omnibus modis quibus verita scire potestG . An attempt has also been made, in the testimony of the mate, to cast general discredit on the evidence of the crew. But in no respect are these witnesses contradicted in any point material to the determination of this case, for whether Captain Jackson did remain three days near the ship, after she was run ashore, as is stated by James Nicholas, the mate, or left her earlier to return to Quebec, or whether the crew were three days or longer, in saving the articles from the ship, these facts can in no degree affect the merits of the promoter's demand for wages. By his exertions and that of others, the ship and cargo were rescued from destruction, and the simple question is, whether he is entitled to recover against the ship the amount of wages due to him at the time she was so stranded. Mr. Patton has contended that he is not, inasmuch as the Mountaineer came to Quebec in ballast, and having earned no freight, there is no fund out of which his wages can be paid. Though it is a true maxim, that freight is the mother of wages, yet to this as well as other axioms, there are exceptions founded on principles of justice and policy. In this instance, the freight was lost, but how lost? Not by the destruction of the ship, unless in addition to losses by winds, waves, rocks and ice. Courts of justice can admit that there can be a loss by sale. "It is a settled principle for the protection of mariners' generally," says Lord Stowell, "that wages form an indelible & perpetual lien on the ship, and follow her wherever she goes," the Leander, Edward's Rep. p. 36. But how could seamen have an "indelible and perpetual lien" on the ship, if it were competent to the master on her obtaining any slight or serious injury in the course of the voyage to put an end to the adventure? If the ship had actually perished, however, much I might be disposed to grant remuneration in name of salvage, to a seaman who had saved any part of the vessel, yet, in the absence of English decisions awarding wages co nomineG , I could not feel myself justified in granting the kind of relief prayed for, but here the hull and cargo are entire, and I think that I am entitled to avail myself of the principle of marine law which is followed in France and in other civilized and maritime nations. The Ordonnance de la Marine, Liv. 3, tit. 4, article 8, is conceived in these words: "En cas de prise, bris et naufrage avec perte entière du vaisseau et des marchandises, les matelots ne pourrant prétendre aucuns loyers." Thus the entire loss of the ship is in that code indispensable to preclude the seamen from receiving their wages, and the commentator Valin observes: "Rien n'est mieux établi, la justice n'y est du tout point blessée, et quant il en serait autrement la politique et l'intérêt de la navigation exigaient nécesssirement que cette loi fût maintenue dans toute sa vigueur." By the ordinance of Philip the Second of Spain, of 1563, it is ordered that the seamen shall save as much as they can from shipwreck, and in that case the master is bound to pay them their wages, and give them a further reward for their labour out of the goods. So by the Hanseatic ordinance of 1614G , if the goods saved equal the value of the seamen's wages, they shall be paid their whole wages. In like manner, the ordinance of Rotterdam cited by Magen, 2 vol. p. 114, directs the payment for the reliefs of the materials saved from the ship, and from Peters and other American reports it appears "that," to use the language of Judge Winchester, "the savings from a wreck are to the last sail and cable hypothecated to the wages." There are matters disclosed in the promoter's evidence which, as they affect the conduct of Captain Jackson, who is not a party in this suit, I shall abstain from observing upon, and have only to say that Cromer, who appears throughout to have wisely attached his fortune to the ship, and to have contributed in no inconsiderable degree to her preservation, and that of the cargo, is justly entitled to the wages due to him at the time the vessel was put on shore, as well as to the money which he received for the time he was subsequently employed in saving the articles belonging to the ship. Whatever blame may attach to Captain Jackson in this matter, I beg it to be understood that Mr. Patton is in no degree implicated in the transaction. I decree in favour of the promoter for £7 11s, sterling, being balance of wages due to him as appears from the schedule A annexed to the libel, together with cost. Mr. Usher for promoter. Mr. Patton in person. |
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| G.R. Bossé©1999-03. | Posted: Dec. 11, 1999. |
Updated: July 15, 2003. |
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