The Arakan

In the present action libelant seeks a recovery for shortage in, and delivery in á contaminated and damaged condition of a portion of, a consignment of 864 tons of cocoanut oil, shipped from Cebu in the deep tank of claimant’s steamer Arakan in 1923. While on the voyage, certain of the after bulkhead rivets in this tank developed leaks, through which oil seeped into the double bottom tank and bilges. Most of that which escaped was recovered and salvaged, but, due both to contamination and the process of salvaging, only át a substantial loss.

Claimant’s initial position is that the leakage resulted from “heavy, tempestuous, and extraordinary” weather, amounting to a peril of the sea, which as such would be excused by the provisions of its bills of lading. This defense, to say the least, is without novelty; it is the carrier’s best, though least dependable, friend. Judged by well-known and usually adopted tests, it must fail in this ease, because it is apparent from the evidence that the weather encountered by the vessel, if not actually anticipated, certainly *792 was of a kind reasonably to have been expected on a trans-Pacifie voyage, and hence not a peril of the sea. The…