Wiel and Amundsen, A/s, as of the S. S. Romulus v. Roy E. Potter

Wiel and Amundsen, A/S, as claimant of the steamer Romulus, hereafter Shipowner, appeals from a decree of the district court awarding damages to Potter, a longshoreman, who was loading lumber in the forehold of the ship. The district court held that the Shipowner was negligent in failing to make tight a removable rod, a part of a fencing railing above the deck just forward of the opened fore-hold also making the vessel unseaworthy in that respect, as a result of which the loose rod gave away in Potter’s hands as he moved to his right from the lumber on the left side of the ship, causing him to fall some seven and one-half feet onto the deck beneath with his ensuing injury.

The Shipowner’s contention is that the injury to Potter was caused solely by his own negligence in proceeding on the narrow part of the foredeck protruding over the hold and relying on the loose rod to sustain him instead of moving over the lumber itself or climbing over the fencing and proceeding over the foredeck.

The Shipowner claims that we are free to consider the evidence de novo in this admiralty appeal, though an inspection of the testimony, all heard by the court, shows that it is conflicting in…