Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/812

 WOLF V'. SCHOONEE BERTIE CALKINS. 805 �and the record furnishes no sufBcient reason to warrant the court in imputing to them wilful falsehood." On the whole, the conclusion is, that the Mason maintained her course on the port tack untU peril was impending and a collision was imminent, and a change of course at that time was not a fault within the meaning of the rules of navigation. �The question of the course of the Mason being disposed of, there remains to be considered the movements of the Calkins. We bave already seen what is the uncontroverted testimony on both sides touching the position of the two vessels as indi- cated by their horns. On the Mason, after the third horn of the. Calkins was heard, her green light was seen. How long after the horn was heard the light was visible is not en- tirely clear, but the testimony indicates that it was immedi- ately. The light was located about a point or a point and a-half on the Mason's lee bow. In a very brief space of tima both lights of the Calkins were seen and continued to be vis- ible, until just before the vessels struck, when the green light of the Calkins was shut out. On hearing the Mason's first horn, the master of the Calkins ordered her wheel down, so that she luffed to N. E., and it was after this movement that the horn of the Mason was heard on the lee bow of the Calk- ins. As this horn was heard, or immediately thereafter, the green light of the Mason was seen, and continued in view tiil the collision. The lookout, Townsend, says that when he descried the Mason's light it was a little on the Calkins' weather bow. From the time the Mason's horn was first heard the Calkins continued to luff, until, at the time of the collision, she stood, as admitted by respondent, about N. E. by E. J E. The testimony on the part of the libellants tends to show that a vessel's light could be seen from a quarter to a half a mile away. That on the part of the respondent tends to show that it could not be seen at a greater distance than from 120 to 150 feet, though at 12 o'cloek the wheels- man of the Calkins says he could see a light about 200 feet. �The lookout of the Mason says that the sound of the first horn of the Calkins indicated that she was one-half or three- quarters of a mile away; that when he saw the Calkins' green ����