Case No. 746.

Carriers of Passengers—Insufficiency of Ac-COMMOPATIONS.

[1. A passenger on a steamship, whether in first cabin, second cabin, or steerage, is entitled to such accommodations and conveniences as the exercise of reasonable care and the adoption of reasonable means for securing them can afford.]

[2. Second cabin passengers cannot complain of the discomfort necessarily incidental to a tropical voyage in a second cabin below the first, but they may demand that the number of passengers in the second cabin shall not be greater than it is capable of containing; that every reasonable facility for washing, etc., shall be afforded; that men and women shall .not have berths or bunks assigned to them promiscuously, without adequate arrangements to secure privacy; that all proper measures to secure cleanliness, ventilation, etc., shall be adopted; and that the second cabin devoted to the use of passengers shall not be lumbered up with baggage belonging to the other passengers, so as to prevent the free use of the accommodations ostensibly given.]

[See Sparks v. The Sonora, Case No. 13,212.]

[3. In a libel for breach of contract with libelants, as second cabin passengers, it appeared that the vessel was crowded. For 198 second cabin passengers, only two wash basins were provided. Two parallel rows of standee bunks, running fore and aft, were erected in the cabin. Only a few inches of space separated the rows, and the berths in some instances were assigned to persons of different sex and strangers to each other. The voyage was through the tropics, and, as is usual, a large number of the passengers occupied the decks at night; but they were unable to retire until 11 P. M., and were aroused at 3 or 3:30 A. M., when the decks were washed. The mattresses used by these passengers were thrown down the hatchway of the second cabin, materially obstructing ingress and egress. The lower tier of standee berths was taken out, and baggage piled up in its place, in such quantities as to obstruct passage and prevent the proper cleansing of the cabin. From these and other causes, the air of the second cabin rendered its occupation incompatible with comfort, and perhaps with health. The drinking water was so hot as to be unfit for use, except after being cooled with ice, and passengers were charged twenty-five cents per pound for the ice. Held, that though some of the discomforts were to a certain extent incidental to a tropical voyage in a second cabin, the libelants had established a breach of the contract.]

[4. 'Held, also, that as the discomfort suffered by the women was greater than that experienced by the men, a discrimination should be made in the amount of damages, and that the female passengers should recover the full amount paid for their passage, and the male passengers one-half of that sum.]