Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/253

 MBROHANTS BTEAM-SHIP 00. V. SCHOONER B. 0. TETON. 239 �fie heard the wheel move, and then the order "Steady;" and some minutes later he heard the mate say, "Confound that fellow, he has p,ltered his course," and give the order "Hard a-port." Hearing that, he says he jumped up and weiit into the pilot-house, and saw the schooner very near and heading for the steamer at an angle of ahout 45 degrees on her port bow. �Then, ii we look at the schooner, we find that there were on the deck of the nchooner the master, the lookout, and the wheelsman, ail of them (judging from the testimony) experi- enced mariners, and ail of them attending to their respective duties. Their testimony supports, in every particular, the allegations of the finswer, and is, so far as I can see, con- sistent with itself and to ail appearance worthy of credit. They asseverate that the steamer was never on their port side, but, from the time she was first seen by them until j'ust prior to the collision, eontinued' steadily about a point on the sehooner's starboard bow, showing ail the time both her lights. It did, upon first impression, seem to me impossible that to the schooner, which was moving six miles an hour, a steamer, which was moving nine miles an hour, could continue for 15 or 20 minutes to show both her lights a point over the sehooner's port bow; but, without better information, how- ever, than I now have of suoh matters, I am not prepared to find that the fact that the steamer was porting her helm and ail the time altering her course more or less to starboard, might not have produced that resuit. �There are, however, some few facts developed by the testi- mony of persons not on either of the coUiding vessels, which, after careful consideration, have brought me to a decision of the questions I am required to pass upon. �The answer alleged, and the master of the schooner and her crew more circumstantially stated, that there was from the first sighting of the steamer another sailing vessel about 150 yards astern, off the sehooner's starboard quarter; and one theory of the claimants is that it was the light of this vessel that those on the steamer were observing; that, by reason of their negligent lookout, those on the steamer never ����