Brace

This appeal brings before thq court a decree of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, entered on February 13, 1930, awarding to the petitioner limited liability for claims presented for the wrongful death of passengers and crew on board the steamship Princess Sophia. The appeal further presents the question of the right of five classes of claimants to participate in the fund deposited in court by the petitioner and the right to an award for such further amount as the court may determine to be the compensation for losses sustained by the alleged acts of omission and commission of the petitioner.

A brief account of the wreck, the sub-stance of the petition and appellants’ answers thereto, as well as their affirmative defenses, are, we think, correctly set forth in the statement made by the lower court. , That statement, which we adopt in substance, with a few minor textual changes, follows:

“On October 24, 1918, the Princess Sophia, owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, stranded on Vanderbilt reef, *341 in Lynn Canal, Alaska, and during the night of October 25th ilie vessel foundered, resulting in the loss of the vessel and cargo and of…