Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/166

 154 FEDERAL REPORTER. �thougb sa3dng that fhe head of the tow was "about off the middle of the creek," adds: "Of course I was not back there to see; I could not tell 40 fathoms behind." The Annie, moreover, a larger boat, lay between faim atod the canal, and the captain of the Annie testi- flea that the steamer lay some 200 feet below the canal. None of the other witnesses on the part of the Blue Bonnet were in so good a place for observation as their captain, as they were all from 300 to 400 feet below the canal. After the collision, moreover, the tow floated with the tide up the canal, and the tow was about 300 feet long. Had the head of the tow only reached the middle of the canal at the time of the dolliBion, so as to leave room for the stem of the Annie, as she lay across, to run up into the canal, three-fourths of the tow must have have been above the canal, and consequently above the influence of the flood tide that ran into the canal, and within the influence of that part of the tide which ran up the river. To have been carried up into the canal by the tide the tow must have been mainly out of the reach of the river part of the tide; otherwise, under the combined effect of both branches of the tide, the tow must necessarily have grounded upon the upper corner of the canal and river, where the shore was ehelving. �I jind, therefore, that the head of the tow was below the canal, as the captain of the Annie states. Her stem, as she lay across the hawser tier, might have been nearer the southerly shore than 30 feet, but she did not touch it, and the port side of the tow, which had one boat beyond the Cato and the Annie'sbows, must therefore have been not less than 180 feet from the shore, and her atarboard side not less than 85 feet distant. �This view, based upon what seem to be the necessary facts of the case, agrees very nearly with the testimony of Captain Kelly, of the Cato, who stands as a disinterested witness. He estimated the tow to be from 100 to 150 feet distant from the southerly shore, and from 120 to 150 feet wide. His estimate of the width of the tow is too large, as it was not over 95 feet wide. The same proportionate cor- rection, applied to his estimate of the distance from the shore, would give about 80 feet from the shore to the starboard side of the tow, or about 175 feet to the port side of it; and this does not greatly exceed the distance given by the captain of the Blue Bonnet, who estimated it at 150 feet. �The Blue Bonnet was about 250 feet ahead of the middle of the tow. In rounding the bend of the river she necessarily went under ��� �