Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/164

 152 rSOEBAL BEPOfiTEB. �seen by the other from half a mile to a mile distant. When half a mile distant, one signal whistle was blown by the tug, wbieh waa answered by the propeller, signifying that each was to keep to the right. Both were aecustomed to the navigation of the river, and were well acquainted with its peculiarities, the set of the tides, and the difficulties of tows in rounding the curves. The Annie was with- out any encumbrance, and there can be no suffieient excuse for her being found in the southerly half of the stream, where she knew there was a tow approaching. The witnesses on her part testify that the tide was such as to set her etern towards the southerly shore, while her bows pointed somewbat towards the northerly shore; and such, I think, all the evidence shows was her position at the time her port quarter struck the bows of the Blue Bonnet ; and doubtless but for this blow, and her bows being thereby thrown to port, she would have passed clear of the tow, at that time some 300 feet distant. �On the part of the Annie it is claimed that when thus struck by the Blue Bonnet her stem was within 25 feet of the northerly shore, and that the collision with the Blue Bonnet arose from a quick sheer by the latter to port under a starboard helm. But the position of the tow and of the Annie in front of it, just after the collision, with her stern very near the southerly shore, and her mode of getting clear by going ahead directly across the river, all show that her position at the time of colliding with the Blue Bonnet is placed by her witnesses much nearer to the northerly shore than she could then have been. The evidence shows that she must have been fully out into the mid- dle of the stream. The lights of the tug and tow were clearly seen; the set of the tide was known ; and if she were not easily able to keep well within the northerly half of the stream, it waa her duty to stop, which she might easily have donc, and to allow the tug to pass her before she entered the bend of the river. Nor does there seem to be any reason why she did not port earlier than she did; and no attempt to stop her was made until after she had struck the Blue Bonnet. Without further discussion of the testimony it seems to ma quite plain that the Annie was in fault. �Whether the Blue Bonnet was also in fault is a question of more difficulty. Most of the witnesses in her behalf testify that at the time she struck the Annie she was hugging the southerly shore at a dis- tance from it of 10 to 30 feet only, and that the starboard boat of the tow was equally near the shore. �If this estimate of their distance from the shore were correct, a ��� �