ABBOTT VS. BALT. AND RAPP. STEAM PACKET CO. 543

Company to various individuals in large sums of money, and
its inability to pay such debts, and praying that a receiver might
be appointed to take charge of and sell the vessels and other
property of the company, and for an injunction to restrain the
defendants (trustees to whom the vessels of the company had
been assigned) from navigating said vessels, and for further
relief.

An injunction was granted on the same day, and a receiver
appointed, unless cause to the contrary should be shown by the
10th of the ensuing month.

No sufficient cause to the contrary having been shown, an
order appointing a receiver was passed on the 1st of January,
1847, and the receiver so appointed, having qualified by giv-
ing bond with approved surety, was authorized and directed,
by an order passed on the 4th of the same month, by consent
of parties, to make sale of the property which might come into
his hands.

The sale was made on the 2nd of February, 1847, and finally
ratified on the 17th of March following; and the Auditor hav-
ing stated and reported an account between the property thus
sold and the receiver, numerous exceptions were filed thereto
by the parties. The principal questions involved, are upon the
claim of the seamen for a prior lien upon the vessel for wages,
upon the claims of creditors who furnished supplies for the ves-
sel, upon certain claims founded upon the drafts of the captain
on the company, and upon a claim of Alexander J. Marshall,
upon a contract entered into by him with the president of said
company.

These exceptions being argued, the Chancellor, in giving
directions for a further account, says;]

THE CHANCELLOR;

Among the numerous creditors who have come in upon this
fund are the seamen who claim the wages due them for navi-
gating and services on board the vessel for the year 1846, and
in their behalf it is insisted, that they are entitled to a prefer-
ence over the other creditors, upon the ground that the wages