(after stating the facts as above). Damages growing out of personal injuries received by falling into the open hatchway of ships have always been of frequent occurrence, giving rise, in consequence, to a vast number of libels for recovery therefor. A very large number of such cases have been cited on behalf of the respective parties to the present cause and have received our careful consideration. To undertake to review and distinguish them would require an opinion of great length, which we think not only unnecessary, but that it would be contrary to the example lately set by the Supreme Court, as 'well as to the request indicated in the proceedings *803 of late annual meetings of the American Bar Association. In so far as concerns the ship, it is enough, we think, to point out that the libel-ant was not its employee in any respect, and that the sole negligence charged against it was the alleged absence of proper lights on the ship and knowledge on the part of its officers that the hatch in question was left uncovered.

We find nothing in the evidence calling in question the proper construction and equipment of the ship at the time that the stevedoring company, of which the libelant was admittedly the employee, was engaged to discharge her cargo and fumigate and reload her, and at the time that company entered upon that service. We understand it to be' the well-established admiralty law that, unless some contractual relation existed between the vessel and the person injured, or that there was some failure on its part to perform some maritime duty or obligation, resulting in the injury complained of, neither the vessel nor its owners are in any wise liable for injuries sustained by an employee of a stevedoring or other independent contracting company in the work of coaling or discharging such vessel; and that the libelant so understood the law is indicated by the allegation contained in his libel that, as an employee of the stevedoring company, he was obliged to take his orders from the foreman in charge of the work, and undertook the work in question under the directions of such foreman.

Turning to the record, we find the testimony, both of the superintendent of the stevedoring company and of the boss of its coaling gang, to the effect that the coaling of the ship was entirely in the hands of the stevedoring company. The witness John Allbin, who was the boss of the coaling gang on the occasion in question, testified that he had been working for this stevedoring company at Seattle for 15 years, that the coal was expected to be brought in a barge alongside the ship about 4 o’clock Saturday afternoon of October 16, 1920, and described the rigging by which the coal was to be taken from the barge (in this instance on the port side of the ship), by means of a crane and clam shell and dumped into a chute which passed over the deck of the ship, supported by a horse, and thus dumped into the coal hatches; that, due to delay by reason of a storm, the coal did not actually reach the ship until the next afternoon, Sunday, at 6:30, at which hour the coaling of the ship was begun, but that he and his coaling gang took the covers from the coal hatches Saturday night and lashed them to the side of the boat, so that everything would be ready when the coal arrived. It did arrive, as has been said, Sunday at 6:30 p. m., when the, coaling was commenced; but, finding that the wet condition of the coal required a higher pitch of the chute, and being unable, on account of the lateness of the hour, to get additional men in order to raise the chute, the work was obliged to be discontinued for the night — it having been expected, when commencing, to complete the coaling by midnight of Sunday.

It is true that the record shows that the captain and at least one other officer of the ship knew, when the captain went ashore at 6 o’clock Sunday evening, that the coal hatches were uncovered; but what of it? The coaling had then been commenced, and was in the *804 actual charge of the coaling crew of the stevedoring company. They had taken the covers off the coal hatches, as was necessary, and had stood and fastened them against the rail of the ship. They cast, it appears, a shadow over coal hatch 3, but otherwise, it clearly appears from the evidence, the ship was well lighted. We agree with, the court below that the libelant had full opportunity to see that the covers of the coal hatches were off, as he was on that part of the ship in question during both the afternoon and evening of Sunday in pursuance of his work for the stevedoring company, and himself went ashore about 4 o’clock in the afternoon of Sunday by means of the ladder extending from the ship to the dock, and returned in the same way in the evening, when he and Maher went aboard to remove the covers from the main hatches, and must have known that the coal hatches were open and their covers fastened to the rail, only 18 or 20 inches from the hatches, and he must have known and seen that along the deckhouse was an open passageway, about 7 feet 2 inches wide, by which he could go to the ladder from the ship to the dock. It is not pretended that there was any shadow across that passageway, or anything to impede the libelant’s passage along it. Nevertheless he chose to take a short cut across the deck of the ship, and most unfortunately walked into the open hole, with the distressing results that have been stated.

We are unable to hold that the ship or its officers were in any respect culpable. The court below, however, held that, when it was ascertained Sunday evening that it was necessary to suspend the coaling operations until the next day, the duty thereupon devolved upon the stevedoring company to put the covers on those hatches, and, applying the safe place doctrine to the situation, held that company liable for-such neglect. It is obvious that, being a corporation, the company could only replace the covers through its employees, each of whom was a fellow servant of the others engaged in the general undertaking of discharging, coaling, and reloading the ship. That such stevedores are now as clearly identified with maritime affairs as the mariners themselves, and, consequently, governed by the maritime law, was distinctly adjudged by the Supreme Court in the carefully considered case of Atlantic Transport Co. v. Imbrovek, 234 U. S. 52 , 34 Sup. Ct. 733, 58 L. Ed. 1208 , 51 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1157. We need not, however, decide whether the safe place doctrine or the fellow servant rule should apply to the present case, for the reason that we are of the opinion that there was no negligence committed in leaving the covers off the coal hatches at the time in question.

It is undisputed that the coaling of the ship was commenced by the stevedoring company at 6:30 in the afternoon of Sunday, and that, finding that the wet condition of the coal required a higher pitch of the' chute through which it was being passed, and being unable, on account of the lateness of the hour, to get additional men in order to raise the chute, it became necessary to discontinue the work for the night, during which interval the libelant carelessly, as the court below rightly found from the evidence, walked into open hatch No. 3. The rule properly applicable to the case is, we think, well stated in the case of Dwyer v. National Steamship Co. (C. C.) 4 Fed. 493 , which ruling *805 has been many times approved in subsequent federal cases. In that case Judge Benedict said:

Among the numerous cases approving that rule is that of Horne v. George H. Hammond Co., 71 Fed. 314 , 18 C. C. A. 54 , where Judge Putnam, delivering the opinion of the Circuit Court of Appeals of the First Circuit, stated the facts thus:

The court, in affirming the judgment of the Circuit Court, said, among other things:

In The Gladiolus (D. C.) 21 Fed. 417 , where a stevedore engaged in his usual occupation fell through an ordinary coal hunker hatch used for storing cargo, the presumption was that his fall was due to his own negligence. The court said;

In The Jersey City (D. C.) 46 Fed. 134 , the libelant was a stevedore employed by charterers of a part of the ship to help put up a refrigerator in the hold. On leaving his work about midnight, he fell -down the hatchway, and libeled the vessel for injuries thereby received, claiming fault in that the hatch was not covered and lights maintained about the opening. The court said;

In The Saratoga, 94 Fed. 221 , 36 C. C. A. 208 , the libelant was one of a gang of men engaged in coaling the steamer while she lay at the pier, and sued for personal injuries sustained by him in falling through one of the open hatches. In holding that he was not entitled to recover, the Circuit Court of Appeals said, among other things:

The Louisiana, 74 Fed. 748 , 21 C. C. A. 60 , was a libel by a stevedore (Harty) for damages sustained by him in falling down an unguarded hatchway. The Circuit Court of Appeals of the Fifth Circuit, after detailing the facts, in holding that the accident was due to his ■ own negligence, said, among other things:

The decree is reversed, with costs to the appellant and against the cross-appellants.