Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/115

 108 FBDEEAL EEPOETER. �the only questions are, what lights did tbey show each otiier, and did the schooner, while on that tack, change further to the "westward just before reaching the steamboat. �There is neither probability nor evidence to support such a hypothesis. The testimony is clear that, though a dark, windy, and stormy night, lights could be easily seen, and I have no doubt that the schooner's light must have been visi- ble at least a mile off to those on the steamboat; probably considerably more. �Upon the whole testimony, I think, it is elearly proved that the schooner kept her course on lier port tack for at least a mile until the collision, showing her port light, and that the steamboat, without observing it, changed her course at least twice after she came in sight, for some reasons not fuUy ex- plained — probably in consequence of seeing other vessels; that she was negligent in her lookout, and did not observe the Farwell till she saw her red light on her starboard bow, and BO close that it was too late to avoid a collision, although she then rung to slow and stop ; and that, theref ore, the f ault was with the steamboat and not with the schooner. Nor is there any force in the claim of the steamboat that the schooner should, when she saw that the collision was imminent, have starboarded to avoid the consequences of the steamboat's mistake. The cases in which a vessel is bound to disobey the positive rule which requires her to keep her course on meeting a steamer, and in which she is chargeable as for a fault in not doing so, are very rare indeed, if any such case ever occurs. The Havre and The Scotland, U. S. Circuit Court, S. D. New York, unreported. �One question still remains: Was the schooner in fault in not showing a flash light ? The rule requiring a sailing vessel in the night-time to show a light on that "point or quarter" towards which a steam vessel is approaching, (Eev. St. § 423e,) bas its most obvions application to the case of a steam vessel approaching a sail vessel from abaft the beam, where the sailing vessel's regulation lights do not show. In- dependently of the rule, there is authority for this requirement ����