The Texaco Southampton - N.S.W. Court of Appeal (Glass, Samuels and Mahoney JJ.) - 17 August 1982 (NEW SOUTH WALES)

Salvage - Whether tug providing towing services under pre-existing contract entitled to salvage award.

The plaintiffs were the master, pilot and crew of the tug Kembla II and claimed a salvage reward for services rendered to the Texaco Southampton in 1975. The Texaco Southampton had suffered a switchboard fire which left her without power and drifting in a westerly direction from a point about 3½ miles to the east of Coledale on the South Coast of New South Wales. The owners of Texaco Southampton had requested J. Fenwick & Pty. Ltd. to place tugs on standby. Fenwicks was normally the sole supplier of tugs for Texaco ships and it supplied them under the terms of a document which prescribed the rates to be paid for towage on a scale which varied according to the weight of the ship and the time of the week during which the towage was performed, but made no reference to the question of salvage.