inst the vessel and, with exceptions to be noted, proceedings _in
rem_ concerning navigable waters are confined exclusively to federal
admiralty courts. However, if a common law remedy exists, a plaintiff
may bring an action at law in either a State or federal court of
competent jurisdiction,[358] but in this event the action is a
proceeding _in personam_ against the owner of the vessel. On the other
hand, although the Court has sometimes used language which would confine
proceedings _in rem_ to admiralty courts,[359] yet it has sustained
proceedings _in rem_ in the State courts in actions of forfeiture. Thus
in the case of C.J. Hendry Co. _v._ Moore,[360] the Court held that a
proceeding _in rem_ in a State court against fishing nets in the
navigable waters of California was a common law proceeding within the
meaning of Sec. 9 of the Judiciary Act of 1789, and therefore within the
exception to the grant of admiralty jurisdiction to the federal courts.
At the same time, however, the Court was careful to confine such
proceedings to forfeitures arising out of violations of State law.

ABSENCE OF A JURY

Another procedural difference between actions at law and in admiralty is
the absence of jury trial in civil proceedings in admiralty courts
unless Congress specifically provides for it. Otherwise the judge of an
admiralty court tries issues of fact as well as of law.[361] Indeed, the
absence of a jury in admiralty proceedings appears to have been one of
the reasons why the English government vested a broad admiralty
jurisdiction in the colonial vice-admiralty courts of America, since
they provided a forum where the English authorities could enforce the
Navigation Laws without what Chief Justice Stone called "the obstinate
resistance of American juries."[362]

TERRITORIAL EXTENT OF ADMIRALTY AND MARITIME JURISDICTION

As early as 1821 a federal district court in Kentucky asserted admiralty
jurisdiction over inland waterways to the consternation of certain
interests in Kentucky which succeeded in inducing the Senate to pass a
bill confining admiralty jurisdiction to the ebb and flow of the tide,
only to see it defeated in the House.[363] However, in 1825, in _The
Thomas Jefferson_[364] the Court relieved these tensions by confining
admiralty jurisdiction to the high seas and upon rivers as far as the
ebb and flow of the tide extended in accordance with the English rule.
Twenty-two years later this rule was qualified i