## Facts

- The barque *Island City*, voyaging from Galveston to Boston, encountered severe weather near Cape Cod, lost ground tackle, and was dismasted and disabled.
- The schooner *Kensington* attempted to aid and towed the barque partway but could not bring her into port, leaving her anchored, without a rudder, still exposed to danger.
- The barque’s owners arranged for the steamer *R. B. Forbes* to render assistance as part of continuing rescue efforts.
- The steamer *Westernport*, owned by Henry B. Cromwell and others, later found the *Island City* with no one aboard and took her in tow to a safe port.
- While the *Island City* was under the *Westernport*’s control, members of the *Westernport*’s crew were accused of taking property from the barque, framed by the salvors as protective custody but alleged by others as embezzlement or plunder.
- The *Westernport*’s owners filed a salvage libel in the District of Massachusetts; the matter was heard with related salvage claims by the *Kensington* and *R. B. Forbes* after removal to the circuit court due to the district judge’s interest.
- The lower court denied or sharply reduced the *Westernport*’s recovery on the ground that misconduct by salvors defeats salvage; the *Westernport*’s owners appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the *Island City*’s condition constituted a derelict and, if so, whether multiple vessels providing successive, materially helpful services may share a salvage award.
2. Whether embezzlement or plunder by salvors forfeits salvage, and whether forfeiture extends beyond the wrongdoers to innocent co-salvors.

## Decision

- The Court treated the case as involving derelict salvage and held that vessels rendering substantial, meritorious services in successive stages of rescue may share in salvage in proportion to their services.
- The Court stated that salvage is conditioned on good faith and strict honesty while the property is within the salvors’ control.
- Any embezzlement by salvors—whether at sea, in port, or after the property is in legal custody—causes forfeiture of the wrongdoers’ entire salvage claim, regardless of the amount taken.
- Secret, purely individual embezzlement does not defeat the recovery of innocent co-salvors who were ignorant of it; forfeiture extends to those who consented to, concealed, encouraged, or could have prevented the misconduct.

## Legal Principles

- A vessel is a derelict only upon final abandonment, without hope of recovery or intention to return; temporary absence to seek help is insufficient by itself.
- When a disabled vessel is aided by multiple salvors at different times, admiralty may apportion salvage among all who rendered material, meritorious assistance, rather than awarding exclusively to the final rescuer.
- Salvage compensation requires good faith, complete restoration, and vigilant protection of the property while under the salvors’ control.
- Any embezzlement by a salvor triggers total forfeiture of that salvor’s salvage, without regard to the value of the property taken.
- Innocent co-salvors are not penalized for secret, individual wrongdoing by others; responsibility attaches to participants who knowingly tolerate or fail to stop misconduct when able.

## Conclusion

The Court held that successive salvors may share a salvage award for rescuing a disabled, effectively abandoned vessel, but that salvage is a reward conditioned on honest custody: any embezzlement by salvors forfeits the wrongdoers’ entire claim while preserving recovery for co-salvors who were innocent and unaware.


Cromwell v. The Island City, 66 U.S. 121 (1861)