Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/643

 FAUB V. BTEAUSHIP FARNLEY. 085 �t. e., about seven points in ail. Afterwards, he sayBj he Baw the schooner's red and green lights, and then Bhe stnick the steamer. The lookout of the steamer was not produced as a witness. �It is by this explanation of the occurrences preceding the collision, contained in the testimony of the pilot, the mate and the -wheelsman, that the claimants of the steamer seek to show that the disaster was altogether brought about by the fault of the schooner; but to my mind the account they give of the movements of the two vessels, and the causes of the collision, is incomprehensible and incredible. The schooner was on her course down the bay; she had the wind fair, and not the slightest reason, so far as can be seen, to change her course. And these witnesses would have the court believe that when the vessels were a mile apart they were red to red, and in such positions that if each had continued her course they would have passed from 200 yards to a mile apart; that out of superabundant caution, when he first 8aw the red light, about a mile off, the pilot ordered the Bteamer's helm to port, and afterwards hard a-port, and that the steamer ran two miles, describing nearly a quadrant, and tberefore necessarily greatly increasing the distance at which they must pass each other. Yet these witnesses insist that somehow or other the schooner, without changing her course, got within a quarter of a mile of the steamer ; that she then starboarded her helm, and, pursuing the steamer, ran into her. Not only, as it seems to me, are these alleged movements of the schooner unaccountable, but it is hardly less incom- prehensible why, if, as these witnesses testify, the vessels were about to pass at such safe and increasing distances, the steamer should, before any change was observed in the schooner's course, put her helm to- port, and, as some of the witnesses say, and as the answer avers, immediately after- wards hard a-port, so that she turned nearly a right angle to her former direction. If, however, the fact was that those on the steamer mistook the course of the schooner, and supposed it to be west of south, as the pilot and mate of the steamer both say they thought it was, instead of S. by E. ^ E. ��� �