The Yarkand

Citations

• 120 F. 887
• 58 C.C.A. 73
• 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4549

Syllabus

<p>1. Shipping — Authority op Master to Sell Ship — Necessity.</p> <p>The authority of a master to sell his ship is restricted within the narrowest limits, and will only be implied in case of actual and extreme necessity, and where he acts in the utmost good faith. It is his duty to advise the owners of an offer, and submit it to their decision, whenever it is practicable and feasible, notwithstanding the fact that he has previously notified them of the ship’s peril, and has received no instructions; and only when the peril is so immediate and threatening that the necessary delay is not warranted will a sale by him be sustained.</p> <p>3. Same — Validity of Sale.</p> <p>The Russian ship Yarkand stranded in the night on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico between Pensacola and Mobile Bay. The second day thereafter the master notified the owners by cable, and also the Russian vice consul at Pensacola. The latter, who was also agent for the insurers, at the master’s request selected a competent board of survey, who visited and examined the vessel with him four days after she stranded. She was lying broadside on the beach, bedded in the sand, heavily listed, bilged, and with the water covering her 600 tons of ballast, and on a level with the sea outside, ebbing and flowing with the tide. Her crew had left her, and were camped on the shore for safety. The weather was rough and threatening. The board of survey reported that the peril of the ship was to her full extent, and so great as to demand immediate action; that, in their opinion, she could not be salved within a reasonable expense, and they recommended her sale if possible, fixing her value as she lay at $1,500. The master and vice consul concurred in their opinion, and, two days later, not having heard from the owners, the master sold her for $1,600, and gave a bill of sale. The insurers, to whom she had been abandoned by the owners, at once, on notice of her peril, brought action to recover her from the purchaser, who