Dennis

In 1924, appellant, who was respondent below, being in need of facilities for transporting from one point to another on the Sacramento river sand to be used for highway construction, by letter dated March 18, 1924, addressed to one Ball, appellee’s agent, offered to rent from the latter a scow and an oil-engine driven boat owned by appellee, upon certain specified terms. The proposal was promptly accepted, and both the boat and the scow at once went into appellant’s service, and continued so to be used until April 27th, when the boat was destroyed by fire. The owner brought this suit in admiralty to recover for such loss, and from an interlocutory decree, declaring respondent’s liability, the latter brings this appeal.

How the fire originated is not known with certainty While the boat was engaged in an effort to dislodge the loaded scow from a sand bar upon which it was stuck, the larger of the two engines “quit.” Under order from the captain, who was in the pilot house, his son went back to start it, but immediately returned with a cry of fire, and upon opening up the hatches it was found that “the whole bilge was on fire, underneath, down in the bottom on the water”; that is,…