Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/915

 908 FEDERAL REPORTER. �is •with the sloop. It was proved that the side liglits were set about the time the sloop left the mouth of Newtown creek, and the red light, or its reaection on the shrouds, was observed by several of the crew at several different times during the port tac^^ in question, and afterwards by one of them before the collision. It was seen by a witness from another vessel which passed up the river just before the collision, and which passed the sloop while she was on that port tack, It is also positively sworn to by two witnesses who were standing on the pier near which the sloop went about. Against this evi- dence there are from the steam-boat three witnesses — the pilot and assistant pilot, who were in the wheel-house and the raate, who was on the lookout forward — who testify chat they saw no red light; and the pilot of a ferry-boat whioh was going up the river between the steam-boat and the New York shore, and which slowed for the sloop as she 'went ont on her last starboard tack, who testifies that sho had no red light. �As to the three witnesses from the steam-boat it is evident that, though they swear pooitively that the sloop had no red light, they do so wholly on their inferenoe to that effect from the fact that they saw no red light up the river about where she must have been, and that they kept, as they believed, a careful loi^kout for lights and would have seen it if it had been there. But considering the speed of the steam-boat, which her pilot admits to have been about 11 miles an hour, and which the evidence tends to show was considerably more than that, it is obvious that her distance from the sloop while the latter was drawing near to New York on the port tack was such that the failure to see the red light then can be easily accounted for by inattention or by interveniug objects. It took some little time for the sloop to go about and gain head- way on her new tack. Meanwhile, the steam-boat was going at the rate of half a mile in two minutes and a half. �As to the pilot of the ferry-boat, called as a witness to this point, his testimony is entitled to much greater weight, be- cause he evidently believed that he saw the sloop while she was still beating out her port tack, and that she had no red light. He says he saw a shadow of something go in towarda ����