Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/776

 764 FEDERAL REPORTER. �the progress of the schooner would show that they were not far from correct in this estimate. �The statement of the captain, that when he passed Robbius Roef light he was a mile and a half to the eastward of it and over towanls the Long Island shore, -would be of some importance, if true. as indi- cating the course of the schooner in reaching the place of collision, tiio large westward divergance of her course from that of the tug, and tlio consequent reasonable expectation of passing to windward. But this statement is utterly incompatible with the answer, and with all the other testimony in the case. To reach a point so far to the eaat of the light would require her course to be about N. N. E. from the Narrows, and a change to nearly N. W., in order to reach the place of collision, — a change of nearly six points. The last course was nearer the wind than she could possibly have sailed, being nearly directly into the wind, and wholly off her course for Hobokeu. �There is no reason to suppose that the schooner did not corne np from the Narrows upon her natural course without any other changes than arose from the variable wind. This course was N. by E., aiid as she sailed by the wind close-hauled the wind was probably vary- ing as much to the north of N. W. as to the west of it. Nor would she otherwise have been nearly following the course of the tug, as it appears she was, when within 100 yards of her. �The statement of the captain and others on the schooner that they saw the man in the pilothouse of the tug starboard his helm when 100 yards distant, is, I think, incorrect. The smoke-stack was di- rectly behind the pilot-house and within a few inches of it, and it obscured any correct observation of the man at the wheel from be- hind ; nor at the distance of 100 yards astern could his motions bo correctly observed from the side without plaeing the schooner much further on the starboard side of the tug than her own witnesses stato, and further even than I find the proof on the part of the tug to war- rant. The ordinary movements of the pilot in keeping the tug steady might also be easily mistaken. The force of the collision upon the starboard side would naturally turn, and did turn, the whole tow around to port, and this change is, I have no doubt, what was in the minds of the witnesses, and what they have misplaced in time as occurring just before the collision. �Tbose on board the tug emphatieally deny any change of course prior to the collision. It also appears that no considerable change of course of a tug and tow so cumbersome and going so slowiy coul<I he made short of 10 minutes. The change of course alleged is a ��� �