Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/921

 ^14 FEDEBAIi BBPOBTSB. �CONCLUSIONS OF LAW. �1. The schooner was in fault for not showing her toroh- light in time, or giving some eç[ually good notice of her pres- ence and position. �2. As this was the sole cause of the collision the libe] flhould be dismissed. �Brown d Smith, for appellants. �John H. Th&mas e Son, for appellees. �Waitb, C. J. I have had no difficulty in reachîng the con- clusion that the toroh-light was not shown from the schooner untU it was too late for the steamer to avoid the collision, and that if it had been shown at a proper time no damage would have been done. Although ail the witnesses from the schooner concur in saying that some minutes elapsed after the light was displayed before the vesaels came together, it is <îlear to my mind that they were mistaken. Mere estimates, by witnesses in collision cases, as to time and distance can rarely be relied on with confidence. It is always safer in determining such questions to be governed by the attending facts and circumstances. �The lights were first brought to the attention of the five persons looking out from the steamer at the time by its re- flection on the sails and rigging of the schooner, and they ail saw it simultaneously. This, I think, must have been when the mate was ooming out from the cabin with the torch lighted, and before he got on deck. Under such circum- stances the reflection would almost neoessarily be seen before the light itself. Immediately afterwards the torch was seen for a moment only by the two lookouts on the bow, and the pilot at the starboard end of the bridge. The captain, at his place near the middle of the bridge, and the second officer at the port end, did not see it at ail, as the hull of the steamer intercepted their view, and it was soon shut out from the others in the same way. These facts are fully established, and satisfy me that the reflection was seen as soon as the jmate came out from the cabin, and that the vessels must iave been very close together. �The testimony from the schooner is to the same efEect, and ����