The facts about salvage

IF YOU COME ACROSS a boat in trouble, maritime law says you have to try to save the lives of its crew. But there is nothing to compel you to save the vessel.

If, however, you decide to drag her off the rocks, or put out the fire, or pump her bilges and tow her to a safe harbor, you may qualify for a reward.

Ø Firstly, the boat must have been in grave danger of being lost or badly damaged.

Ø Secondly, you must have volunteered your help.

Ø Thirdly, you must have risked your life or your property in your bid to aid the stricken boat.

Ø And fourthly (and always a little unfairly I’ve always thought) your efforts must be successful. You’ll get nothing if you can’t manage to deliver what’s left of her to a safe harbor, even if you’ve worked on her for days.

How much can you claim for salvage? Admiralty Court awards are usually based on how much your efforts contributed to saving the boat. To qualify at all, your efforts must have been “substantial,” compared with any other help the vessel might have received.

Finally, take no notice of the old fairy tale that handing your towline to another boat entitles you to claim salvage. It’s not automatic.

Today’s Thought

After the verb “To Love,” “To Help” is the most beautiful verb in the world!

— Baroness von Suttner, Ground Arms

Tailpiece

“I think you should divorce your husband.”
“What? I’ve lived with that bum for 20 years — and now I should make him happy?”

(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)

A swimming champion

THE LATEST ISSUE of BoatU.S. magazine contains a story about the salvaging of a 40-foot sailboat that went aground late one night off the south jetty of Oceanside Harbor, California.  As salvage stories go, there was nothing too remarkable about this one.  A commercial tow-boat was called in and dragged the sailboat by brute force into deeper water.  No one was hurt and there was no serious damage. But one remarkable aspect of the story seems to have been rather glossed over by BoatU.S. in its desire to emphasize the role played by its own rescue-boat agency, Vessel Assist.

According to the article, when the call from the stranded skipper arrived at the office of Vessel Assist in San Diego, they quickly loaded a 34-foot tow-boat called Shelter Island, and got under way for Oceanside, a trip of about an hour.  There they got a line to the sailboat and slowly towed her off toward the open ocean.

It’s the bit about how they got the line to the boat that seems remarkable to me.

“Once Shelter Island arrived, shallow water forced the towers to stay almost a quarter-mile away from the jetty, which meant that 1,200 feet of 1/2-inch towline would have to be taken to the sailboat through breaking waves and against an outgoing tide by a swimmer — Captain Shane Thompson. This would’ve been all but impossible with nylon rope, but the crew had taken time to load a remarkably strong Amsteel Blue line, which floats.”

Now I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to tow a long line behind you in the water, but it’s damned difficult.  Even if it’s floating, there is a tremendous drag from 1,200 feet of line. Simply swimming yourself ashore (presumably in a wet-suit in that cold water) against breaking waves and an outgoing tide would be difficult enough, but fetching in a half-inch line the length of four football fields under those conditions is almost superhuman.

That’s a job for a shallow outboard dinghy, or a personal watercraft, neither of which the Shelter Island was carrying, I presume.  In any case, if the BoatU.S. story is correct, Captain Shane Thompson, a technical dive instructor, did a mighty fine job and deserves the highest of accolades.  He must be some swimmer.

Today’s Thought

I saw him beat the surges under him,
And ride upon their backs; . . . his bold head
’Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar’d
Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke.
— Shakespeare, The Tempest

Tailpiece

Did you hear that all the toilets in New York’s police stations have been stolen? So far, the police have nothing to go on.

(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)

A bigger fish to fry

FRENCH FISHERMEN have caught the biggest fish in the Indian Ocean — a 28,000-ton Italian luxury cruise ship with more than 1,000 people on board.

The tuna-fisher Trevignon responded to a call for help from the Costa Allegra when a fire destroyed the cruise ship's generators and disabled her engines. Although tiny in size compared with the Allegra, the Trevignon has powerful engines designed to haul heavy seine nets through the water.

The fishing boat got a line aboard the stricken liner and towed her at 6 knots for three days to Mahé, capital of the Seychelle Islands. Along the way, the Frenchmen refused to hand their prize over to two more powerful tugs from Mahé, which could have towed the liner faster and got her passengers ashore about a day earlier. Without electrical power, the passengers had no working toilets, no air conditioning, and no hot food.

Now, with the Allegra safely berthed in port, the Trevignon's crew can look forward to a salvage award that could mean they'll never have to catch another tuna in their lives.  

According to Captain D. Peter Boucher, a retired master mariner living in Coral Gables, Florida, once that towline was passed and accepted, the standard maritime salvage rights were established for the FV Trevignon. Even though the fishing boat is French and the  liner is Italian, English Law will apply, Capt. Boucher maintains.

Lloyds' Open Form (LOF) is a salvage agreement almost universally accepted by seafarers. "It is a "No Cure No Pay" agreement, which was put in place in the 19th century by Lloyds' Insurance of London, United Kingdom," says Boucher. "No amount of money is quoted in LOF, which is about a page-and-a-half long, and quite basic. Once the salvage is successful (that is, "cured") then an arbitrator sits down and assesses the entire operation to come up with an award amount for the "cure," based on the value of the ship, its cargo and/or passengers, risks involved, dangers involved, and the overall degree of difficulty.

"Usually the arbitrator is a Queen's Counsel of the English Admiralty Bar who follows English Civil Law on Salvage and decides on the award to the tower vessel. Clearly in the current case of towing the MS Costa Allegra, a passenger vessel, this award could be considerable."

It can take many months to decide such matters, of course, but if the crew of the Trevignon are like many other sailors I know, I bet they're swilling champagne and living the high life in Mahé right now and celebrating the biggest catch of their lives.

(The Costa Allegra, incidentally, belongs to the same company as the cruise liner Costa Concordia, which capsized recently after hitting rocks off the Italian island of Giglio.)

Today's Thought

This is our special duty, that if anyone specially needs our help, we should give him such help to the utmost of our power.
— Cicero, De Officiis

Tailpiece

Fruit fly to horse fly:  "Uh, don't look now, my friend, but your human is undone."

(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)