Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/491

 ATLAS BTEAM-SHU» CO. V. STEAM-SHIP COLON. ie77 �tinctly what he understood the exîgency to be. The agree- ment signed voluntarily by him, and under no stress, press- ure, or compulsion, shows his view of the situation of the Colon, and of the service required of the Etna. There is no claim that the situation was misrepresented to him, or waa misunderstood by him. The Colon was disabled as to her machinery, but was in other respects tight, etaunch, and strong, and needed no assistance but towage. The Etna towed her to the port to which the Etna was bound. For the time occupied in the towage the compensation of $4,375 is at the rate of over |33 an hour. The delay to the Etna was 36 hours." �It is speculation and conjecture to assume that disaster would have overtaken the Colon because of her location, or of her drifting, or of a change of weather, or of her being deprived of the use of her steam machinery, or of any shortness of provisions. Anything may happen, but there is no evidence on which to found a reasonable belief that disaster would bave happened to the Colon or her cargo from any one of those causes. �The evidence does not show any serious risk to the Etna, with proper management of her machinery. It is to be assumed that her machinery was properly managed. She was not asked to improperly manage her machinery in tow- ing, or to tow at too rapid a rate, with injury to the machin- ery, when the machinery could have been properly managed, and the towing could have been done at a less rapid rate with- out injury to the machinery. Improper use of the machinery, when it could as well have been properly used, is not to be laid to the account of the Colon. The evidence as to the actual resulta of the towing on the machinery of the Etna shows that the risk of breaking it down by the towing was very small. On the evidence the risk of the Etna exhausting her fuel was very small. As to the risk of the Etna's receiv- ing nothing if her machinery had given out, or her coal been exhausted before reaching New York, it is clear that, as the service by the agreement was towage towards New York, the ����