Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/767

 THB LEVEBSONS. 755 �for a considerable time off the schooner's port bow; that the scliooner never changed her course ; and that the steamer's red light continued to be seen until she was about abreast of the schooner. The wind was fair for the schooner — a seven or eight knot breeze — and her speed must have been about the same as that of the steamer, viz., six and one-half miles an hour. How was it possible, then, for the steamer, continuing to show her red light on the port side of the schooner until she was abreast of her,":to then turn a right angle and strike the schooner a perpendicular blow amidship before the schooner passed by? These allegations of the libel were, of course, based on the statements of the schooner's steward and lookout — they being the sole survivors — and their testimony, as given in court as to the movements of the two vessels, increases rather than diminishes the difSculty of comprehending why the vessels came into collision. �The lookout of the schooner states that he first saw the steamer's red light over the port bow upwards of a mile off ; that he continued to see the red light until those on the schooner began to halloo ; that the red light was well off the schooner's port bow ; and that when the steamer's green light opened and he saw both of the steamer's lights, she was fully abreast of the schooner, well back from the bow, where he was standing, and about opposite to the midship of the schooner. �The steward testifies that he was standing aft of the wheel and saw the red light over the port bow when it was reported, eight or ten minutes before the collision; that he continued to see the red light well on the port bow, until the steamer was' about two of her lengths off and abreast of the schooner's forward rigging, when both the steamer's lights became visible to him, and suddenly her red light disappeared and the steamer struck them amidship, the steamer's stem inclining towards the stern of the schooner. �Making all possible allowances for mistakes as to time or distance, it still seems to us impossible to understand how the collision could have occurred in the manner or for the reasons given by these wit- nesses ; and as the libellants' case rests on their testimony, it is only reasonable that, in examining other statements made by either of them, we should be quickly impressed by any improbabilities. �In the testimony of the steward he states very positively that be was standing by the binnacle just prior to the collision, and noticed the compass and the course of the schooaer, whioh he states was S. ^ W., with the wind E. S. E. From his answers under cross-exam- inatioQ it is obvions that he is ignorant of navigation and of the ��� �