Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/750

 736 FEDEEAL EKPORTBR. �Tessel lying athwartships of the bark. The master testified that he had reached the top step of the companion-way when the vessels struck ; that he looked back towarda the bow at the other vessel, and then immediately went to the compass and Baw that the bark headed N. W. f N. ; then he ran to the ■wheel, took it from the wheelsman and rolled it over hard a-port, and gave the order to back the yards in order to get clear of the other vessel. �The four seamen of the mate's watch had the wheel buc- cessively for the four hours beginning at 8 o'clock. They aU testify that the vessel was heading ail the time N. W. ; that her yards were braced in on the port side, close to the back- stays on the wind. The evidence as to the angle at which the vessels came together was conflicting. The master of the Fernande made the blow an angling blow, and his diagram shows an angle of 52 deg., or a little over 4J points, as the heading of the Fernande across the bow of the Adolph at the time of collision. The lookout of the Adolph, by his dia- gram, makes the same angle 87 deg., or T| points. The master of the Adolph makes the same angle of the two ves- sels 103 deg. when he looked back over the bow an instant after they struck. The mate made two diagrams, making the angle in one 90 deg. and in the other 125 deg. Such evidence is worthless, so far as concerns any use of it to fix the precise angle of contact. The observation is made in a moment of peril and alarm, and the thing to be observed is one difficult of judgment if cooUy and deliberately observed, The concurrence of the witnesses, however, establishes the general faot that the angle between the vessels at the moment of col- lision was not a very acute angle, and testimony is also pro- dueed that no injury was done to the starboard bow of the Adolph,- while her port bow showed bruises and scratches, and the manner in which the bolts in her stem were bent indicated that the blow was nearly head on. The testimony of those on the Adolph is that at the moment of the collision the sails of the Adolph were full. This is not contradicted by the single witness from the Fernande. Assuming, then. ����