ABBOTT VS. BALT. AND RAPP. STEAM PACKET CO. 547

would not be liable, if a like promise of the owner was taken
and relied upon. Abbott, 168, note 11; 5 Law Reporter, 116.

Unless evidence of this description can be furnished, it is
believed to be very well established that the owners are liable
for necessary supplies furnished the ship by order of the master.

The question, then, in this case, is, have these owners suc-
ceeded in establishing, by evidence, that the persons who fur-
nished supplies for this vessel, did so upon the credit of the
master alone ? Looking to all the proof upon this point, and
giving it a fair consideration, I cannot agree with the counsel,
that credit for these supplies was given exclusively to the mas-
ter, without which, the owner was unquestionably liable. In
fact, with regard to the claims numbered 9 and 10, the idea of
the exclusive liability of the captain could not have been en-
tertained by these owners, as it appears by the records, that
they confessed decrees for those claims at March term last, in
the United States District Court for the Maryland District.

It would be a consumption of time and space for which
there would be no compensating advantage, to enter upon an
examination of the proof, upon which my conclusions upon
this question of fact are formed, and I therefore content myself
with saying, that I am not satisfied that the parties who fur-
nished these supplies, contracted to look exclusively to the
captain for their money, and, therefore, my opinion is, that
such of the creditors of this class as may succeed in proving
their claims, will be entitled to come in upon the fund as gen-
eral creditors, after the satisfaction of the liens and preferences
already referred to.

In addition to the claims of the seamen and of the parties
who furnished supplies for the vessel, certain claims have been
filed, founded upon the drafts of the captain on the company.
These drafts are dated on the 7th of December, 1846, and the
vessel ceased to run on the 12th day of the same month; and
on the same day a resolution was passed by the directors of
the company, directing these drafts to be charged to the ac-
count of the captain, and credited to the parties entitled to re-
ceive the same, and in case the sum due the captain from the,