Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/251

 MEBCHANTS STEAM-SHIP 00. W. SCHOONBB 8. 0. TBTON. 237 �about 10 minutes in water some six fathoms deep; ttatthe passengers, ofScers, and crew of the steamer escaped in the small beats, and got aboard of the scliooner, and were brought to Baltimore. �The answer of the claimants of the schooner S. C. Tryon alleges that the schooner was coming up the bay on the starboard tack, making six knots an hour, with the wind from southward and eastward, her course being N. by W. one-half W.,her master in charge of the deck, a lookout in the bow,-and a man at the wheel; that the lookout reported the steamer's mast head light about five miles off, and from a half a point to a point on the schooner's starboard bow; that a few min- utes after this light was reported the red light of a sailing ves- sel -was discovered directly astern of the schooner, and 150 yards distant, gaining rapidly on the schooner, so that a collision seemed imminent, unless the schooner felloff and gave the sailing vessel room to pass ; that the schooner did fall off for a few seconds, going about 40 feet froni the line of her original course, and then resumed her course of N. by W. one-half W. ; that the steamer, which afterwards turned out to be the Falcon, continued- to bear one point on the schooner's starboard bow, and was about three miles distant ■when the schboner resumed her course; that about five min- utes later, the steamer's red and grecn lights being then visible, the master of the schooner exhibited to the steamer a lighted torch ; that the steamer kept her course, continuing to beàr one point on the schooner's starboard bow, until she got very near to the schooner, -when ail at once the steamer ported her helm and started across the course of the schooner; that as soon as the steamer made this attempt a collision became inevitable, and for the purpose of easing the blow, and pre- venting the steamer from running over the schooner, the helm of the schooner was put "hard down," causing the schooner to go to starboard, and the order had hardly been exe- cuted when the vessels came together, the port bow of the schooner striking the steamer's port side, at an angle of about 60 degrees, between the stem of the steamer and the stern of the schooner. ����