52 FEDERAL REPORTER.
V THE OTTAWA.
DUNHAM Towme & Wnmcxrne Co. ·v. THE OTTAWA.
(Dtatrtct Oourt, M D. Iilirwia. December 5,1887.)
SHIPPING—CHARTER—PARTY—LAY DAYS—ST1{ESS or- WEATHER.
” The respondent had chartered a tug of libelant agreeing to pay $125 per
day forit while wind-bound. The_tug was dischaged at Grand Haven. From
that day, December 7th, she remained in Grand aven until December 10th;
the captain being informed a storm was coming by the signal·service oihcer. ·
. Other steamers ran in and out of Grand Haven until the 11th, and the storm
did not come until the 8th, and there was ample time for the tug to have re-
turned to Chicago before it. Held, that as there was no storm prevailing on
the 7th, and noindications of an immediate storm, respondent was not liable
for the 1ay·days. ; » A · T .
In Admiralty. A ` » t ,
_ Libel bythe Dunham Towing & Wrecking Company against the
schooner Ottawa, respondent, for the services of a tug while detained in
port_ by stress of weather. . _ ` , i A
Schuyler do Kremer, for libelant. . _ . ’
. Geo. A.»1i"arr, for respondent., ·
BLODGETT, J. This is a libel for the services of the tug Morford, at the
rate of $125 per day, during the time she was, as alleged by libelant, de-
tained in the port of Grand Haven by stress of weather. The case made
by the pleadingsand proof is substantially this: on the first of Decem-
ber, 1885, Buswell & Co., residents of Grand Haven, made a contract of
charter with the Dunham Towing & Wrecking Company for the services of
the tug Morford to tow the schooner Ottawa from the port of Chicago to
Grand Haven, and from there to Cheboygan, Michigan, at the price of
$200 a day while engaged in towing. and $125 a day while wind-bound
in port, the employment to date from 6 o’cl0ck in the evening of the
first day of December. There was some delay in getting out of the port, _
so they did not leave the port of Chicago until some time in the evening
of the second of December, the day after the contract commenced. On
leaving the harbor they laid their course for Grand Haven; but, as the
captain of the tug testifies, after being out two or three hours, they en-
countered a heavy sea from ·the northward, when they drew in towards
the west shore of the lake, and kept near the shore until they reached
Milwaukee, about 2 o’clock in the afternoon of the 3d, where they laid
until about 4 0’clock in the morning, when, the sea running down, they
left Milwaukee and ran across to Grand Haven, reaching there on the
afternoon of the 4th. They lay in Grand Haven until Monday morn-
ing, the 7th, when for reasons which are not disclosed by the testimony,
and not necessary to consider, Buswell & C0. notified the tug that they
had no further use for her, having abandoned the idea of getting the Ot.-
tawa to Cheboygan, and that the tug could return to Chicago. The tug
did not return to Chicago until the ensuing Friday, having left on Thurs-