Stern

The libel filed in the court below named one B. Fernandez as respondent, and it is alleged that on the 17th day of October, 1904, the libelants shipped on board the schooner Francis E. M. Bernard, then lying in the Sacramento river, in the state of California, bound on a voyage to the port of San Francisco, 1,008 sacks of beans; that owing to the unseaworthy condition of the vessel, and to the insufficient manning thereof, and to the negligence and carelessness of the respondent, the merchandise was, on the 17th day of October, 1904, totally lost and destroyed, whereby the libelants, suffered damage in the sum of $2,377.05. Subsequent to the filing of. the libel, Fernandez died, and the present appellees, Carlotta C. Fernandez and Thomas B. Fernandez, as executrix and executor of the last will and testament of B. Fernandez, were substituted as respondents:

[ 1 ] The Francis E. M. Bernard was a vessel of the type known as a scow schooner, about 45 feet long and 4 feet deep, with a beam of *43 about 18 feet. She had a flat bottom, with round bilges, and a sharp bow. She carried two masts and three sails — a foresail, a mainsail, and a jib. It appears from the testimony that the…