Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/765

 the levbrs0n8. 753 �The Leversons. �iDUtriet Court, D. Ma/ryland. February 20, 1882.) �1. C0LI.TS10N — CoNFLiCT OF Testimont— Improbable Cabb. �Where, in a libel by the owners of a sailing-vessel against a steam-ship for damages for a collision, the testimony was in direct and irreooncilable conflict, and the testimony of the libellant's witnesses was discredited because of the improbabilities of the case atterapted to be established by them, the libel was ordered dismissed. �In Admiralty. �This case having been once argued in the district court, the judge, after considering the case, directed a reargument. It was then at his request, and with the assent of counsel, reargued before both the district and circuit judges as if on appeal. �John H. Thomas, for libellants. �Brown A Brune, for respondents. �MoBRis, D. J. This libel is filed by the owners of the American Bchooner David E. Wolff, (122 tons,) against the British steamer Leversons, (916 tons,) to recover damages resulting from a collision in the Chesapeake bay. The schooner was bound down the bay from Baltimore to Portsmouth, Virginia, laden with 200 tons of steel rails. The steamer was proceeding up the bay on a voyage from Liverpool to Baltimore. The collision occurred between 10 and 11 o'clock at night on February 25, 1881, four miles S. E. by S. from York Spit light, the night being dark, but the atmosphere olear, and the wind a seven or eight knot breeze from the eastward. The schooner was struck on her port side, nearly at right angles, just forward of the mainmast, by the bow of the steamer, and sank immediately in water five fathoms deep. AU those on board the schooner were drowned except the steward and the lookout, who were rescued from the water by boats from the steamer. �The case for the schooner, stated by the amended libel, is that the schooner was on a course S. ^ W., with her side lights brightly burning, when those on board saw the red light of the steamer a con- siderable distance off over the schooner's port bow ; that the schooner tield her course, and the red light of the steamer continued to be visi- ale until the steamer was about abreast of the schooner, when the ?reen light of the steamer became visible; that immediately upon v.lO.no.T— 48 ��� �