D. R. Kincaid, Ltd. v. Trans-Pacific Towing, Inc.

This is an appeal from a final decree in admiralty rendered in the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii. The district court had jurisdiction of the case under 28 U.S.C. § 1333 . This court has jurisdiction of the appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 .

D. R. Kincaid, Ltd. and Thomas A. Giuli, doing business as Kincaid-Giuli Joint Venture (hereinafter “Kincaid”), were in the process of constructing a loran station on an atoll (known as Kure Island) in the Pacific Ocean for the United States Coast Guard pursuant to a government contract. Kure Island, like many other Pacific atolls, is a stretch of submerged coral reef, round in shape, extending about four nautical miles in each direction, with less than five per cent above water, which five per cent is a sand dune known as Green Island, some twenty feet high and approximately one mile long, located at the southeast cir cumference line of the atoll. To provide for the landing of materials and equipment, Kincaid chartered tugs and barges, the tugs being used to tow the barges from Hawaii to Midway to Kure. Outside the reef, the tug released the barge to a vessel operated by Kincaid which would tow the barge into a break in…