Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/105

 THE HOPB. 91 �moonlight night; that there was but very little sea; that there was about a three-knot breeze, the wind being S. W. by S. or S. S. W., and that each vessel had ia place the lights required by law. It is also conceded that the schooner was Tunning free, wing and wing, and that at the time of collision the sloop was close-hauled on her starboard tack. Upon such a state of facts, unless the sloop had shortly before that «hanged her course, there can be no question if a collision occurred that the schooner would be in fault, and it is there- fore claimed in the schooner's behalf that just before the collision the sloop did change her course from the port to the fltarboard tack, and thereby run across the schooner's bow and caused the collision. The mate and two men were on the schooner's deck, the mate, as he says, being on the look- out, he not being willing to leave that duty to the seamen, as they had joined the vessel that day and he had had no expe- rience of their capacity. The testimony of the mate is that when he first discovered the sloop she was ahead, from an «ighth to a sixteenth of a mile off ; that he saw both of her lights, and that she was then on her port tack, heading W. by N., the schooner heading N. B. by N. ; that he ordered the schooner's wheel hard a-port, which was done, and he then saw the sloop 's port light three points on their port bow. The wheel was then righted and the schooner put on her course, about E. N. E. Between the time he ûrst saw the iights and the time he shut in the green light he may have gone one or two hundred yards. That he then ran aft to slack the boom tackle and let the mainsail over, but when he had gone 30 or 40 feet he turned round, and saw the sloop had tacked. Saw her green light. Gave orders to port the wheel again, which order was complied with. They were then going about a knot and a half. That he looked over the schooner's bow but saw no one on the sloop's deck, and heard no bail from her. The two seàmen who were in the mate's watch have not been examiued as witnesses, as they deserted the schooner on the next day after her arrivai. �The testimony of the mate of the schooner is that when he first discovered tl\e sloop he saw both of her lights, and she ����