§ MR. GILHOOLY (Cork, W.)asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether it is a fact that Daniel Mahoney and two comrade fishermen did, at great personal peril, in Dunmanus Bay, County Cork, recover a torpedo, the property of Her Majesty's Government; whether they did restore same to Coastguard authorities at Schull, subject to the usual demand 130 for salvage; whether the value of the torpedo is £500; whether the usual salvage awarded by the Court of Admiralty is sometimes one-half, and never less than one-tenth, of the value of the property saved; and, whether these men have received half or a reasonable amount of the value of the torpedo in question; and, if not, what reason can be assigned for deviating from the usual practice of awarding salvage?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON) (Middlesex, Ealing)The fishermen in question found the torpedo floating, and towed it about four miles to a place of safety, from whence it was handed over to the Coastguard. The torpedo not being loaded, there was no peril attaching to this service. The value of the torpedo is £340. The Admiralty Court occasionally awards salvage as high as one-half of the value of the property salved; but it is not correct to say that less than one-tenth is never awarded. The present case is, however, one of recovery of wreck and not of salvage, and is, therefore, not one for the Admiralty Court to deal with. The Admiralty, in these and similar cases, award such remuneration as the circumstances of the case justify. In this case an award of £1 per man was considered adequate.