Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/262

248 the Narragansett, as she lies at her pier, the view down the river between the line of the piers and the line drawn from the pilot-house by the outer end of the shed on pier 31. While there is some controversy as to whether or not the tide was at the time of collision running up the river, there is no question that when the Narragansett left her pier she was so low in the water that, in fact, the shed on pier 31 obscured the view of the river inside of the line passing by this shed. The shed was not of the same height back of the 25 feet, and over this lower part of the shed a little of the river close in to the piers above pier 21, which projects further out than those above it, could be seen from the pilot-house; but this is of no consequence, since there is no claim that the City Point was within the space so exposed to view. The distance at which the City Point was running up the river, upon the evidence, is not precisely fixed, but it lay between the limits of 200 and 300 feet, Her master says about 300 feet.

It is conceded in the case that shortly before the collision the City Point gave a signal of two whistles in reply to a signal from the Narragansett, but the three chief points of the controversy as to matters of fact in the case are, what signals the Narragansett gave before this signal from the City Point; to what signal of the Narragansett this signal of the City Point was an answer; and at what distance in the river the City Point was at the time she gave this signal. The subsequent movements of the two vessels are too clearly proved to admit of doubt.

It is the contention of the City Point, as plainly alleged in the libel, that it was the long starting whistle of the Narragansett which the City Point thus answered; that the Narragansett had not then started, but, "shortly thereafter," put her wheels in motion; and that at the time of this exchange of signals the City Point was about opposite pier 30. Upon the hearing and in his brief, the learned counsel for the City Point takes somewhat different ground, claiming that the Narragansett did not blow her starting whistle at all, nor give any signal till she had moved forward so far as to bring