Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/604

 MIRCOVIOH V. BARK STAE OF 8C0TIA. 597 �no certain conclusion can be drawn from the angle at which they came together as to how she or the Sansego was heading just before she saw the green light and ported. The claim- ants have laid great stress on the testimony of a ship-builder and surveyor of vessels who had examined the injuries done to the bow of the Star of Scotia, and who testified that, in his opinion, those injuries were made by a Jblow nearly square on ; that a certain hole made in the plates on the port bow, between two and three feet above the water, could only bave been made by the channels of the Sansego, and that to make this hole the Star of Scotia must have struck the blow at an angle of at least i5 degrees. It impaired very much the fact of this testimony when it was shown, as it was, that the San- sego had no channels. The evidence is purely speculative, and, I think, entitled to very little weight. With both ves- sels moving forward rapidly, and rising and falling more or less with the sea, such speculations must be often at fault; nor does any experience acquired in ship-yards, or in the observation in port of injured vessels, suffice to render any man's judgment on such a point trustworthy, or entitled to control other proofs which are reasonably certain in their results. The question whether or not the Star of Scotia had a port light which could be seen from the Sansego is not itself a decisive question, if it be found that the Sarisego kept her course. It bas been made important, however, as the determination of that question one way or the other aflfects somewhat the weight to which the testimony of those on the Sansego is entitled. They swear positively that the greeu light, when about a point and a-half to windward, disappeared, and they could see no other light. It is suggested by the learned counsel for the claimants that they did not see it because they did not look in the fight place ; that they looked to windward, in the direction where the green light disap- peared, whereas they should have looked to leeward, to which side the Star of Scotia had passed. But this theory does not meet the case. As is shown by the testimony of those on the Star of Scotia, as above referred to, the moment her greeu light disappeared her red light ought to have been seen in ����