Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/486

 472 PEDBBAIi BEPOETBR. �"At sea, August 20, 1876, lat. 28 deg. 17 min. N., long. 74 deg. W., on board steam-ship Etna. We, the uiidersigned, do hereby agree as foUows: The P. M. S. S. Colon, being disabled as to her machinery, but in other respects tight, stauneh, and strong, asks the Atlas S. S. Etna to tow her, the Colon, to New York. The undersigned, Captain S. P. GrifEn, of the Colon, stipulates that compensation for the assistance to be rendered shall be settled by the companiea in interest in New York; and the undersigned, Captain J. W. Sansom, of the Etna, accepts the stipulation of Captam S. P. GrilEn, and for his part will render the assistance meutioned upon the terma stated. �"8. P. Geipfin, "J. W. Sansom." �The Etna had only one hawser suitable to assist in towing the Colon. It was a 10-inch hawser, which had beeu in use on the Etna for two years or more, but was in good condi- tion. The Colon had a larger hawser, new, which had never been used. Before the captains separated it was arranged that both hawsers should be used in towing. This agreement having been made, the master of the Colon returned to his vessel, and the hawser of the Colon was passed to the Etna, and the hawser of the Etna to the Colon. The hawsers were made fast to the after bitts on the quarter-deck of the Etna, on either side, and the Etna resumed her voyage to New York with the Colon in tow. They got under way about 7 o'clock in the evening of the twentieth of August, and aiarived off Sandy Hook shortly before midnight on the 25th, and came up the bay early in the morning of the 26th. �During ail the time that the service was performed the weather was fine, the sea smooth, and the winds favorable, and during most of the time both vessels carried sail. The ves- sels arrived in New York safely and without accident, except that the Etna's hawser stranded on the twenty-first, and there was consequently a short stoppage while it was being repaired. In consequence of the inequality in the strength of the two hawsers, they were so arranged that that of the Colon bore more of the strain of towage than that of the Etna. ����