Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/111

 104 FEDERAL REPORTEIÎ. �were in the wheel-housc, and tlicy, togetlier wltli the lookout, ■vi-ere the only witnesses examined who observed the move- ments of the two vessels before the collision and, so far as appears, they were the only persons on deck who had any opporiunity to observe what happened before the two vessels came together. �The story of the pilot and assistant pilot is that soon after passing Stepping Stones they put the steamboat on a north- east course, heading for Execution Light; that they made a vessel's green light on the starboard bow at a distance ■which they estimate at from half to three-quarters of a mile ; that they then starboarded so as to head a little to the north of Execution Light. The evidence of these two witnesses i.^ very unsatisfactory as to the attention they paid to this light after they had thus starboarded, on its being reported. The next thing which they appear to have noticed was a red light very near them, not more than 150 yards distant, and two or three points on their starboard bow. Their testimony alone would not be sufiScient to show that the red light, which was un- doubtedly the port light of the Joseph Farwell, was on the same vessel with the green light which they had previously seen. It was their conclusion that it was the same vessel, but this conclusion is in no way warranted by their own testimony as to their observation of the gruen light after they first saw and altered their course to avoid it. Their inf erence was that after they had changed their course, and after the vessel bearing the green light got very near them, she sud- denly changed her course from a south-west course to a course nearly west, running right down upon the steamboat. �The lookout testifies to seeing and reporting the green light on the starboard bow, and his testimony is that he continued to observe it as it approached, and that when it got very near it suddenly disappeared and the red light showed, and then the collision almost immediately happened. �This witness, therefore, confirms, from his observation, what with the other two witnesses appears to be a mere con- clusion, that it was the same vessel which bore the green and the red light. ����