Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/928

 APPLEBT V. BARK KATE IRVINQ. 021 �that the steamgliip was moving at the rate of eight or nine miles an hour, and, in approaching the tug and tow, did not lessen her speed. �The libel on hehalf of the bark charges the blame of the collision upon both the steamer and the tug; upon the tug for giving conflicting signais, and upon the steamer for not slowing or stopping, and for improper steering. It ia obvions that the care and skill required to enable a large steam-ship and a tug, encumbered with a heavy tow, to pass each other in the Brewerton channel, without risk of collision, bave not been exercised in tbis case, The wind was light, the water gmooth, and the day clear, so that there was nothing but want of seamanship to account for the collision. That the tug did not do ail that, in the exercise of proper skill and diligence, she should have done, appears, I think, from the testimony of her own of&cers and from the admitted facts. Her master states that he did at first propose to take the northerly side of the channel, and gave notice to the steamer of his intention by two blasts of bis whistle when a mile and a-half off. He states that he got no reply, but kept on down the middle of the channel, until within half a mile of the steamer, without giving any other signal, or at ail chauging his course. Notwithstanding he received no answer to hia signais, from which the inference was that they were not heard, it appears that he must bave continued his course as if he were going to the northernmost side of the channel for some five minutes without repeating them. Then, seeing that the steamer had gone to the northernmost side, he gave one blast, to signify that he was going to the southernmost side, which was responded to by the steamer, and then, he says, "we changed our wheel a Utile to -port." �The engineer of the tug who executed the master's orders fihows how little tbis porting was. He says : "When half a mile off the captain ordered me to blow one whistle. The steamer was then tending a little to the north side of the channel. I blew one whistle and /lad po^'ieti my wheel about a minute or two when the captain tokl me to stcady her." It is jaot surprising that, being encumbered by a tow quite suffi- ����