1. Salvage — Contract for Towage — Duress—Amount of Compensation.

On a libel on contract for salvage services rendered by the steam schooner Tillamook to the steamer Sirius, the evidence showed that the Sirius, having lost her propeller and part of her shaft, was placed under such sail as she had, and, after drifting for three days, was anchored in a bay of an island off the coast of lower California; that she was in a dangerous position, as she could not get an oiling with her small sail power, and in case of a southerly gale might go ashore; that the master of the Tillamook, which came to her assistance, proposed either to tow her to San Diego for §20,000, or to furnish stores and gratuitously hike an officer to San Diego to procure assistance; that the original purpose of the master of the Sirius was to send to San Diego for assistance; that he was positive his position was safe, and that he could get to sea before a southerly storm became dangerous; that he decided not to send an officer to San Diego, as he wished to avoid lengthening his voyage; that he clainied that §20,000 for the towage services was unreasonable and exorbitant, and proposed either a reduction in the charge, or arbitration, or to leave the question to the owners to settle; that his propositions wore rejected by the master of the Tillamook, whose vessel, with its small engines, ■might become disabled, or too greatly strained by towing the Sirius, which was much larger; that the negotiations occupied an hour and a half; that the contract for the towage services at $20,000, contingent on success, was drawn by the purser of the Sirius, and subsequently signed by her master; and that the Tillamook was valued at §32,000, and the salved property at §143,539. Held, that the situation of the master of the Sirius did not force him into the agreement, and the contract was not made under duress; and that the compensation provided for the service, though high, was not so unreasonable in amount as to justify the court in setting the contract aside as wholly inequitable and unjust. The Wellington, 48 Fed. Rep. 478, and The Agnes 1. Grace, 51. Fed. Rep. 958, 2 C. C. A. 581, followed.

8. Same — Apportionment.

The award of §20,000 under the contract was distributed among the salvors by the court as follows: §13,250 to the charterers of the Tillamook, which was the principal factor in performing the salvage services, and assumed the risk of failure and disaster; §2,500 to the master of the Tillamook, who promptly procured additional stores for the Sirius, offered to go to San Diego at once for assistance, and undertook the towage service against the protest of two of his passengers; and §4,250 to the other officers and crew of the vessel, according to their relations to the service performed, their extra work, and their regular wages.