Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/931

 GBKEN V. 8TKAMBB HSIjEK. 923 �tention that it has been superseded by the acts of the gen- erai assembly of Maryland of 1872, chapters 151 and 409. The ûrst is an act to incorporate the town of Crisfield, and provides that the town commissioners may ascertain the depth and course of the channel of the harbor and river Annamessex, and fix buoys for facilitating the navigation thereof, and may cause the harbor tp be cleansed and cleared of ail obstructions, whether from vessels sunk or any other cause, and may require the wharves to be kept in repair. Chapter 409 is an act to define and preserve the harbor of Crisfield, and the Little Annamessex river in Somerset county, and provides that certain commissioners shall define and establish the lines of said river to which wharves and other improvements from either shore may be erected, and provides penalties for building in violation of such established lines, a,nd for throwing into the harbor thus defined anything tend- ing to fin up or obstruct the same. �Neither of these acts, so far as I can see, either confliot with or supersede the provision of the act of 1867, that no boat shall anchor in the track of vessels between Tangier Sound and the railroad wharf at Crisfield. �It is not shown that, under either of the two later acts, any attempt has been made to set apart any anchorage for vessels. There was some testimony to show that an officer of the corporation of Crisfield had notified vessels that they must not cast anchor in the basin between certain wharves, but there was no evidence to show that the place where the Eoach was lying had ever been, by any color of authority, designated as a proper anchorage for vessels. �I now corne to consider whether there was any fault on the part of the steamer which contributed to cause the collision; for, although the Eoach was anchored in an improper and dangerous place, the general maritime rule is that, whether the anchored vessel is in an improper place or not, the vessel in motion must avoid her, if practicable, and can only excul- pate herself by showing that it was not in her power, by adopting any practicable precaution, to have prevented the collision. The Clanta and The Clara, 23 Wall. 14. ��� �