Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/107

 THE HOPE. 93 �Bide of the binnacle; that he sa"w the sclioon&r wlien he wàa on the watch, and also after he tbok the wheel; that the sloop was close-hauled; the sohooner was eoming right toi- wards us; that hetwice made outcries, and the man on the lookout also hailed the sohooner, but they got no reply; that when he made the last tack they were about a couple of miles to the leewardof the schooner; that the schooner struck them with her cutwater, breakingin two deck plankand twoonher side. The schooner's jib-boom went through the mainsail of the sloop, and her stem was pressed down undcr water, so that witness was knocked overboard and the water rushed into the cabin and hold. On cross-examination he stated that he took the wheel at just 9, and had been there but a few minutes when he tacked; that he made but one tack whileat the wheel, and had been there about half an hour when the collision occurred. Sunman, the other seaman who was on the sloop's deck, says that they had been on the starboard tack 25 or 30 minutes before the collision, and that he waS on the lookout ail the time. There are two other witnessea from the sloop who testify that they were called on deok by the hail from their vessel, and that when they came on deck the schooner was quite near and the collision was in a very short time. �The statement of the mate of the schooner that the sloop thus tacked just before the collision, and was thereby the guilty party, is thus directly contradicted by the two men who were at the time on the sloop's deck, and who swear that they tacked 25 minutes before the collision. These two men cer- tainly had the best opportunity to know the truth of this matter, and courts of admiralty are geuerally inclined to accept the statements of a crew as to the movements of their own ship rather than those eoming from those on boaid the other vessel, The Empire State, 1 Ben. — . The probabilities are much in favor of the sloop. It would hardly be expected that when the vessels were so near that a change of course would expose them to danger, that those in charge of the sloop, who are experieneed seamen, would thus willingly ex- pose themselves to so great risk. The mate's statement as to ����