Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/914

 906 FBDEEAL EEPORTEB. �tbat, in his opinion, the colKsion did not become inevitable until the bark ported the second time. �Without noticing here the gross contradictions between these two officiai statements, and between each of them, and the testimony of the master and the mate, it is enough to observe, as bearing on the question now under consideration, and the probability of those on the steamer being mistaken in their first dim observation of the bark through the fog, that the view which they got of her must indeed bave been indistinct and uncertain, if the impression of it on their minds ■was 80 plastic that their imaginations, working on that im- pression so soon after the event, ean bave created the positive belief in their minds of a movement of the bark by porting, ■wbich supposed movement proves now to bave been a mere creation of the imagination, or a conclusion of what they thought must bave been done from what they also thought they saw being done. What reliance can be placed upon optical impressions so plastic and unreal, so little fixed and certain, so susceptible of shifting appearances? �Assuming, then, that the course of the bark, when first seen, was east by south, and that she was not crossiag the bow of the steamer, but was pointing, though at a very slight angle, to leeward of her, the next point in dispute is the speed of the steamer. It is claimed on the part of the bark that the steamer was running at a speed of llj knots an hour, The steamer admita about nine knots. On tbis point the preponderance of the testimony is against the Bteamer. �It. is true that the witnesses from the steamer testify to their opinions that the speed she was making was eight and a half or nine knots, but such evidence is of little value if based on mere observation of the progress of the vessel through the water. �The master, however, testifies that the telegraph, up to the time the bark was sigbted, stood at "full speed ahead," and on this point the chief engineer says her utmost speed, under steam alone, was llj- to 12 knots. She was carrying her fore try-sail, main try-sail, fore stay-sail and jib — ail large ��� �