548 HIGH COURT OF CHANCERY.

company, should be insufficient to pay them, that then they
should be paid pro rata.

The parties to whom these drafts were given were directors
and officers of the company, who must have known at the time
of its embarrassed condition, and that the crew and provision
men had not been paid. It appears also by the evidence of
the captain, that he gave them with reluctance, if not under
absolute coercion, and that they were given by him for money
borrowed from the parties in whose favor they were drawn.
Under the circumstances attending the drawing and direction
for the payment of these drafts, I do not think they are entitled
to any very great degree of favor, but yet it seems to me, they
should not be wholly excluded from all participation in the
fund out of which they were to be paid. It appears that there
was at that time due the captain from the company, about
$2400, which accrued in the year ,1846, for his pay and com-
pensation in that year. The contract between him and the com-
pany, as disclosed by the proof, was, that for a fixed compen-
sation the captain was to find the vessel in hands and provi-
sions, and to pay generally the expense of navigating her, that
the contract was duly performed by both parties until the year
1846, when the company failed to comply with its engagement
to the captain, and the latter was consequently unable to pay
the crew, &c.

I have already expressed the opinion, that the crew have a
lien on the proceeds of the vessel, and that those who fur-
nished the supplies, though they have no lien, are to be treated
as creditors at large, and entitled to such dividend as may be
fairly apportioned to them.

As, however, according to the contract between the company
and the master, the latter was to pay the hands and the pro-
vision men, and as the sum due the captain from the company
is the primary fund for that purpose, my opinion further is, that
whatever fund may have been found to be due from the com-
pany to the captain when the drafts in question were given,
should be apportioned pro rata between the crew, the provision
men, and the holders of the drafts referred to—that for what-