Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/311

 THE ANT. �set and sunrise, exhibit where it can best be seen, but at a height not exceed- ing 20 feet above the hull, a white light in a globular lantern of eight inches in diameter, and so constructed as to show a clear, uniform, and unbroken ight, visible all around the horizon, and at a distance Of at least one mile." The twelfth rule relates to canal-boats, oyster-boats, raf ts, or other water-craf t, and requires, whether sueh boats are navigatlng the waters or lying at anchor, that they shall carry one or more good white lights, which shall be placed in the manner prescribed by the board of supervisiug inspeetors of steam-ves- sels. �The advocates for the claimants insist that the two white vertical lights on the steamer told a false story; that the true construction of the fourth rnle requires the vessel with such signais to be in motion, and that only one light should have been shown after the tow had arrested her progress by grounding on the bottom; that the only inference to be drawn from seeing the two vertical lights alof t, and no green and red aide lights on the starboard and larboard sides, was that the steamer was towing other vessels down the bay ; and that, if such inference had been correct, the collision would not have oc- curred. �The advocates for the libellants, on the other hand, contend that the fourth rule prescribes that the two vertical lights shall be shown bya steamer when engaged in towing, whether in motion or not; that such lights do not necessarily imply their locomotion, but their occu- pation ; that if temporarily stopped by touching the bottom, neither the law nor the practice of navigation requires the double light to be taken down, but to be left burping, 80 that all approaching vessels may understand that not only the steamer, but her tow, is to be avoided. �The expert testimony is, of course, conflicting; about an equal number of pilota on each side testifying that the customary and prac- tical interpretation of the rule is in favor of the party which produced them. For instance, Van Deventer, an experienced pilot offered by the libellants, says that in his long experience the only significance he ever knew to be attached to two vertical white lights on the flag- staff of a steamer was that she was a tug-boat having a tow to a hawser. On the contrary, Mr. Gilkinson, speaking as a pilot for the claimants, says that if, while descending the river at night, he saw ahead of him two vertical lights, one over the other, as if on a flag- staff, and on the starboard side of the boat two lights nearer the water, he would understand there was a tow going the same direction with liim down the river* And there seems to be a like oontrariety ��� �