Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/266

 2&2 FEDERAL REPORTER. �Narragansett had slowly moved forward about 40 feet, and, of course, -while the Narragansett was moving the first 40 feet, the City Point was moving many times that distance. It foUows that the City Point must have been below, and probably con- siderably below, pier 28 when the Narragansett started. The testimony on the part of the libellant is singularly uniform that the City Point was about off pier 29 or 30 when she heard and replied to the starting whistle of the Narragansett. It is, however, also very indefinite as to the position, and, with most of the witnesses, apparently not given with reference to an actual observation at the time as to their position in relation to the piers. The testimony on the part of those in charge of the Narragansett, that when the City Point answered by a double whistle — not in reply to the starting whistle of the Narragansett, but in reply to another and later signal of a single whistle, after she had started and had gone forward some little distance — the City Point was as low down as pier 28 or lower, is confirmed by'the testimony of by-standers having no interest in the cause; it is consistent, and it alone is con- sistent, with the necessary deductions to be drawu from the distances run by the two boats before the collision. And, upon the whole testimony, it must be held as proved that at this exchange of signais the City Point was down at least as far as pier 28, a distance of 900 feet from the Une on which the Narragansett was coming ont, and that those on the City Point had failed to notice the starting whistle of the Narra- gansett, which had just before been blown, although the tes- timony is that it could be heard two miles. This being the relative positions of the two vessels, the Narragansett being in motion, though slowly, when she blew the single whistle, and the City Point having the Narragansett on her starboard hand, and their courses crossing so as to involve danger of collision, the nineteenth rule clearly applies, and the City Point was bound to keep out of the way of the Narragansett. The Propeller John Taylor, 6 Ben. 227. �It matters not that the Narragansett was still within the slip when she blew this whistle. She was iu fuU view of the ����