Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/753

 8WSDI3H BASS iJ)OLFH. 739 �and yet draws a point and a quarter further to -windward, while the vessels are going over the intervening mile, more or less, that separates them. I see no way in which this ia possible, unless by force of a very strong current setting her to windward, and not affecting the Adolph, of which there is no evidence. To get so far to windward of her former posi- tion, the Fernande must inevitably have luffed safficiently to show her green light long before she reached the position tes- tified to by the witnesses, when, still showing her red light directly ahead, she luflfed and showed her starboard side. �It is evident, therefore, that there is error in some or at least in one of the elements of the problem as given by the Adolph's witnesses, either in their course or movemehts, or the bearing of the light when first seen. In this uncertainty it is urged that the accotmt given by the master of the Fer- nande will aocount for the collision, and that, as the etory of the Adolph does not account for it, his story is to be credited as the more probable. If it were certain that the witnesses from the Adolph could not be mistaken as to the bearing of the light on their port bow, when first seen, it would be diffi- cult to give any credit to their story. While the story of the master of the Fernande, taken alone, would account for the collision, yet on many points essential to the libellant's the- ory of the case he is contradicted by several witnesses, and not supported by the testimony of the other men on his vessel. It is true that their absence is accounted for by the faot that they lef t the Adolph to be landed at Belle Isle ; and, so far as appears, the libellant has not, before the bearing of the cause, been able to obtain their testimony. But, neverthe- less, this want of corroboration, though a mare misfortune of the libellant, leaves the master's testimony very weak, shaken as it is by so serious and positive contradiction. �I tbink that the testimony in the case is most nearly har- monized by the supposition, not in itself improbable, that the lookout and the mate of the Adolph mistook the bearing of the red light when first seen ; that, instead of being half a point on the port bow, it was nearly ahead, and a little on ����