Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/418

 STANDARD KEFINESY V. SCHOONER OENTENNUL. 411 �1 have no doubt the schooner waa light when she left Car- •denas, and that the leak was caused by her heavy laboring in the straits of Florida. The quantity of water in the hold would indicate that the leak had existed for several days before it was discovered. It was proved, from what occurred afterwards, that had its existence been known in season the vessel could easily have been kept clear by pumping; for after the leak became Liown the crew were able, by pump- ing ail hands at both forward and after pumps for 11 hours, to lower the water in the hold two feet, and afterwards the ■water was kept at that level by the use of the forward pumps alone until the vessel reached Philadelphia. So it appears that the damage to the sugar was caused not merely by the leak, but by the failure to discover it until the injury was done. �It seems to me if this vessel sailed from Cardenas in a con- dition by which water could enter and accumulate in her hold by leaking to a depth of seven and a half feet, without show- ing itself in the pump well, she was not fit to undertake the voyage ; and it is certain she did leave Cardenas in that con- dition, unless the theory put forward by the claimants to account for what took place can be established. They have attempted to aecount for it upon the theory that the drainage of the sugar leaking through the hogsheads and the ceiling of the vessel and settling about the bottom of the timbers stopped up the limber-holes, and thus prevented the water from passing to the pumps. �Very little evidence was offered to sustain this theory. It does not seem to me probable, in the short space of time which elapsed between the loading of the vessel and the springing of the leak, the drainage could have aecumulated in such quantities, or could have become suf&ciently solid, to produce the resuit claimed. That the limber-holes were stopped there can be no doubt, but that it was by the molas- ses draining from the sugar casks seems to me impossible. But it does appear that the Centennial's voyage to Car- denas was from an English port, with a cargo of coal, and that the limber-holes were not examined or cleared out at ����