Opinion of the Court. preferred to a claim for damages for a subsequent collision appears never to have been even suggested in England, probably because, by. the law of England, material-men, without possession, have no maritime lien for supplies, even to a foreign ship, but a mere right to seize the ship by process in admiralty, in the nature of an attachment. The Rio Tinto, 9 App. Cas. 356; The Henrich Björn, 10 P. D. 44, and 11 App. Cas. 270. "Claims for necessaries," said Dr. Lushington, "do not possess, ab origine, a lien; but carry only a statutory remedy against the res, which is essentially different." The Gustaf, Lush. 506, 508. There can be no doubt, therefore, that in the English admiralty courts the lien for damages by collision would take precedence of an earlier claim for supplies. In this country, the principle, applied in the case of The Bold Buccleugh to a claim for damages by collision, that a maritime lien is created as soon as the claim comes into being, has long been held to be equally applicable to all claims, which can be enforced in admiralty against the ship, whether arising out of tort or of contract. General Ins. Co. v. Sherwood, 14 How. 351, 363; The Creole, 2 Wall. Jr. 485, 518; The Mayurka, 2 Curtis, 72, 77; The Young Mechanic, 2 Curtis, 404; The Kiersage, 2 Curtis, 421; The Yankee Blade, 19 How. 82, 89; The Rock Island Bridge, 6 Wall. 213, 215; The China, 7 Wall. 53, 68; The Siren, 7 Wall. 152, 155; The Lottawanna, 21 Wall. 558, 579; The J. E. Rumbell, 148 U. S. 1, 10, 11, 20; The Glide, 167 U. S. 606. Accordingly, in our own law, it is well established that a maritime lien or privilege, constituting a present right of property in the ship, jus in re, to be afterwards enforced in admiralty by process in rem, arises, not only from a collision and for the damages caused thereby; General Ins. Co. v. Sherwood, The Rock Island Bridge, The Siren and The China, above cited; but also for necessary supplies or repairs furnished to a vessel, whether under the general maritime law in a foreign port, or according to a local statute in her home port. The Young Mechanic, The Kiersage, The Lottawanna, The J. E. Rumbell and The Glide, above cited. Opinion of the Court. Some years before the decision in The Bold Buccleugh, Mr. Justice Story had clearly recognized the existence of a maritime lien, as well for damages by collision; The Malek Adhel, 2 How. 210, 234; as for supplies in a foreign port, regarding which he observed: "A material-man, who furnishes supplies in a foreign port, or to a foreign ship, relies on the ship itself as his security. He may, it he pleases, insist upon a bottomry bond with maritime interest, as the security for his advances; in which case, he gives eredit exclusively to the ship, and must take upon himself the risk of a successful accomplishment of the voyage. But if he is content with receiving the amount of his advances and common interest, he may rely on that tacit lien or claim, which the maritime law gives him upon the ship itself, in addition to the personal security of the owners. Wherever a lien or claim is given upon the thing by the maritime law, the admiralty will enforce it by a proceeding in rem; and, indeed, it is the only court competent to enforce it." The Nestor, 1 Sumner, 73, 78. And it is worthy of note that the last part of this observation was quoted and relied on in the judgment in The Bold Buccleugh. 7 Moore P. C. 284. By our law, then, a claim for damages by collision, and a claim for supplies, are both maritime liens. The question of their comparative rank is now for the first time presented to this court for adjudication; and it has been the subject of conflicting decisions in other courts of the United States, and especially in those held within the State of New York. In The America, (1853) Judge Hall, in the Northern District of New York, appears to have held liens for collisions and those for supplies to be of equal rank, without regard to the date when they attached to the ship. 16 Law Reporter, 264. A claim for damages by collision has been postponed to an earlier claim for supplies, by Judge Brown, in the Southern District of New York, in The Amos D. Carver, 35 Fed Rep. 665; but has been preferred to such a claim, by Judge Benedict, in the Eastern District of New York, and by Mr. Justice Blatchford on appeal, in The R. S. Carter & The John G. Stevens, 38 Fed. Rep. 515, and 40 Fed. Rep. 331. And, in an Opinion of the Court. earlier case, a claim for collision had been allowed by Judge Benedict a like preference over a previous bottomry bond. The Pride of the Ocean, 3 Fed. Rep. 162. The preference due to the lien for damages from collision, over earlier claims founded on contract, has been carried so far as to allow the lien for damages to prevail over the claim of seamen for wages earned before the collision, by Judge Lowell, in the District of Massachusetts, in The Enterprise, 1 Lowell, 455; by Judge Nixon, in the District of New Jersey, in The Maria & Elizabeth, 12 Fed. Rep. 627; by Judges Gresham and Jenkins, in the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in The F. H. Stanwood, 9 U. S. App. 15; and by Judge Swan, in the Eastern District of Michigan, in The Nettie Woodward, 50 Fed. Rep. 224. The opposite view has been maintained, in the Southern District of New York, by Judge Choate, in The Orient, 10 Benedict, 620, as well as by Judge Brown, in The Amos D. Carver, 35 Fed. Rep. 665, above cited; and in the Eastern District of New York, by Judge Benedict, in The Samuel J. Christian, 16 Fed. Rep. 796; and in the Western District of Michigan, by Judge Severens, in The Daisy Day, 40 Fed. Rep. 538. The case at bar, however, presents no question of the comparative rank of seamen's wages, which may depend upon peculiar considerations, and which, according to the favorite saying of Lord Stowell and of Mr. Justice Story, are sacred liens, and, as long as a plank of the ship remains, the sailor is entitled, against all other persons, to the proceeds as a security for his wages. The Madonna D'Idra, 1 Dodson, 37, 40; The Sydney Cove, Dodson, 11, 13; The Neptune, 1 Hagg. Adm. 227, 239; Sheppard v. Taylor, 5 Pet. 675, 710; Brown v. Lull, 2 Sumner, 443, 452; Pitman v. Hooper, 3 Sumner, 50, 58; Abbott on Shipping, pt. 4, c. 4, § 8; 3 Kent Com. 197. Yet see Norwich Co. v. Wright, 13 Wall. 104, 122. Nor does this case present any question between successive liens for repairs or supplies, the general rule as to which is that they are to be paid in inverse order, because it is for the benefit of all the interests in the ship that she should be kept in condition to be navigated. Abbott on Shipping, pt. 2, Opinion of the Court. c. 3, § 32; The St. Jago de Cuba, 9 Wheat. 409, 416; The J. E. Rumbell, 148 U. S. 1, 9; The Fanny, 2 Lowell, 508, 510. Nor does it present a question of precedence between two claims for distinct and successive collisions, as to which there has been a difference of opinion in the Southern District of New York; Judge Choate, in the District Court, giving the preference to the later claim, upon the ground that the interest created in the vessel by the first collision was subject, like all other proprietary interests in her, to the ordinary marine perils, including the second collision; and Mr. Justice Blatchford, in the Circuit Court, reversing the decree, because the vessel libelled had not been benefited, but had been injured, by the second collision. The Frank G. Fowler, 8 Fed. Rep. 331, and 17 Fed. Rep. 653. Nor yet does it present the question whether a lien for repairs made after the collision, so far as they increase the value of the vessel, may be preferred to the lien for the damages by the collision, in accordance with the English cases of The Aline and The Bold Buccleugh, cited at the beginning of this opinion. But the question we have to deal with is whether the lien for damages by the collision is to be preferred to the lien for supplies furnished before the collision. The foundation of the rule that collision gives to the party injured a jus in re in the offending ship is the principle of the maritime law that the ship, by whomsoever owned or navigated, is considered as herself the wrongdoer, liable for the tort, and subject to a maritime lien for the damages. This principle, as has been observed by careful text writers on both sides of the Atlantic, has been more clearly established, and more fully carried out, in this country than in England. Henry on Admiralty, § 75, note; Marsden on Collisions, (3d ed.) 93. The act of Congress of December 22, 1807, c. 5, laid an embargo on all ships and vessels, within the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, bound to any foreign port or place; and the supplemental act of January 9, 1808, § 3, provided that any ship or vessel proceeding, contrary to the provi Opinion of the Court. sions of the act, to a foreign port or place, should be forfeited. 2 Stat. 451, 453. Upon the trial of a libel in the Circuit Court of the United States to enforce the forfeiture of a vessel under those acts, Chief Justice Marshall said: "This is not a proceeding against the owner; it is a proceeding against the vessel, for an offence committed by the vessel, which is not less an offence, and does not the less subject her to forfeiture, because it was committed without the authority and against the will of the owner." The Little Charles, 1 Brock. 347, 354. Upon a libel of information for the condemnation of a piratical vessel, under the act of Congress of March 3, 1819, c. 77, continued in force by the act of May 15, 1820, c. 113, (3 Stat. 510, 600,) Mr. Justice Story, delivering the opinion of this court, and referring to seizures in revenue causes, said: "The thing is here primarily considered as the offender, or rather the offence is attached primarily to the thing; and this, whether the offence be malum prohibitum or malum in se. The same principle applies to proceedings in rem, on seizureš in the admiralty." The Palmyra, 12 Wheat. 1, 14. In The Malek Adhel, 2 How. 210, 233, 234, Mr. Justice Story, in delivering judgment, stated the principle more fully, saying: "It is not an uncommon course in the admiralty, acting under the law of nations, to treat the vessel in which or by which, or by the master or crew thereof, a wrong or of fence has been done, as the offender, without any regard whatsoever to the personal misconduct or responsibility of the owner thereof. And this is done from the necessity of the case, as the only adequate means of suppressing the offence or wrong, or insuring an indemnity to the injured party." And, after quoting the passages above cited from the opinions in The Little Charles and in The Palmyra, he added: "The ship is also, by the general maritime law, held responsible for the torts and misconduct of the master and crew thereof, whether arising from negligence or a wilful disregard of duty; as, for example, in cases of collision and other wrongs done upon the high seas, or elsewhere within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, upon the general policy of that law, which looks to the instrument itself, used as the |