Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/924

 KENNEDY ». STEAMER SAEMATIAN. 917 �•waters, one is enough for ail purposes, and his station will be at or near the bow. From there he ean usually see a steamer coming up behind in time to give the necessary -warning ■without interfering with his duties ahead. But, whether that be 80 or not, it is clear that the rule contemplates the keep- ing of a sufficient watch over the stern to enable the vessel to perform her duty as to the lights, and if the situation is Buch that one lookout is not enough there must be more. �It is next insisted that as the Sarmatian was a British vessel, and by the laws of Great Britain sailing vessels are not required to show torch-lights, the schooner can recover notwithstanding she exhibited hera so late. The two ves- sels were at the time on American waters and not on the high seas; they were in the Chesapeake bay, and infrafauces terra. A vast majority of the commerce carried on there was coastwise and local. The Sarmatian was subject to the operation of pilot law and within the limita of pilot ser- vice. If she had attempted to proceed without a pilot, after one could have been had, she would have been guilty of a breach of duty, and liable to her shippers and insurers for any loss on that account. While the rules of navigation adopted by congress are only intended for the government of vessels of the navy and mercantile marine of the United States, no vessel forming part ofthat marine can excuse her- self from foUowing their requirements while in the waters of the United States and on pilot ground, simply because the vessel it meets is sailing under a foreign flag. Pilota are employed not only to keep a vessel on her proper course, but to enable her to understand the local usages governing the navigation of the waters in which she is sailing. As the law requires a foreign vessel to have a pilot on board, it is to be presumed he will be at his post and govern himself by the rules preseribed by the proper authorities regulating naviga- tion in that locality. Under such cireumstanees every pilot bas the right to believe that ail vessels he meets will do what the local laws or usages require of them and act accordingly. �While the acts of congress may not be binding on foreign Tessels, the local usages growing eut of these observances ����