Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/803

 75)6 FEDERAL REPORTER. �ematical demonstration, to maintain their views upon these questions. It is plain, however, that, considering the state of the weather on the night of the collision, points of position and distance cannot be arrived at with exactness, and that much that is claimed in this respect, perhaps on both sides, is little more than conjecture and pure theory. In such a state of facts it is clearly important that undeniable facts be first eliminated from the mass of testimony presented, and that such facts be kept prominently in view in connection with ail the circumstances of the occurrence as they are dis- closed. �The collision occurred soon after midnight. From ail the testimony it is clear that the wind was S. S. E. ; this, in- deed, is admitted on both sides. The Mason was heavily laden with a cargo of lumber. The Calkins was light. The lights of both vessels were in proper place and burning. It was mate's watch on the deck of both vessels. The watch on the Mason consisted of the mate, wheelsman, and one man stationed as lookout. The watch on the Calkins con- sisted of the mate, wheelsman, and two lookouts. The Calk- ins was sailing with the wind free, and her course was N. |- W. At sometime before the collision the Mason was sailing on the port tack, close hauled, steering S. S. W. The course on the two vessels intersected. Whether the Mason was pur- suing her course, shortly before the collision, is one of the questions of fact in dispute. From libellants' testimony it is safe to say that the Mason was sailing between four and flve miles an hour. The speed of the Calkins was at least between five and six miles an hour, probably a little more, Bince she was sailing free and light. Both vessels were car- rying full sail. The weather was thick, occasioned chiefly by smoke from burning woods on the Michigan shore, which settJed over the lake and rendered navigation, in the locality of these vessels, somewhat difficult. The watch on the Mason heard three blasts of a horn, indicating a vessel sailing free. From the testimony of the crew of the Mason it would ap- pear that these blasts were heard a little on the weather bow of that vessel, which would be the port bow if she was on ����