Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/925

 CKEEN V. STEAMER HELEH. 917 �of eaid steamer, at a high rate of speed, and ran inlo and so damagecl her that she soon filled with water and sank; that at the time a proper light, as required by la-w, was brightly burning in ber f orward rigging, which could have been easily seen, with proper vigilance, by those navigating the steamer, in time to have avoided the collision. �The claimant, by his answer, alleges that the steamer Helen, of 550'tons, was on her usual route from Baltimore to Crisûeld, expecting to arrive at the railroad wharf at Crisfield on her schedule time of 5 o'clock; that the night was very dark, with ocoasional rain, and the wind blowing hard from the south- west; that the steamer was proceeeding cautiously, at a rate not more than sufficient for steerage, with two men on the lookout far forward in the bow, one oii eaoh side, and with her captain and pilot in the wheel-house; that when on her usual course, about the center of the channel, and about 200 yards ftom the railroad wharf for which she was steering, the lights of two vessels were seen, one on her port and one on her starboard bow, but with ample room to pass between them ; that when nearly abreast of the two lights the look- outs and ofiScers saw the reflection of the steamer's head-light on the masts of a vessel under the steamer's bow, not more than 76 to 100 feet ahead, which afterwards proved to be the libeUant's schooner Eoach; that the engines were at once reversed, but there was not time to avoid the collision, although the headway of the steamer was cheeked, so thatr the blow was not violent ; that the Eoach was lying acroes the channel, and in the usual track of the steamer, and had no light upon her, and was so heavily ladened that not more than a foot of her huU was above water, and the night was so very dark that it was impossible to have seen her sooner ; that the schooner was anchored in a place f orbidden by law, and although in a dangerous and forbidden place had no lookout or watch ; that the steamer, knowing it was the constant habit and practice of the Eoach and other vessels of her class to anchor in that part of the channel, although by law forbidden 80 to do, used every precaution to guajrd against accident, but ��� �