Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/758

 744 FBDKRAL REPORTER. �testimony ratlier tends to show that the red Hght suddenly and ail at once as a bright liglit became visible to him, and that, as the Fernande approached nearly head on, she showed first her starboard and then her port bow. AU the proof there is of the Fernande 's having a green light is that her master testifies that he knew the lights were set and burning that evening, and that, during his watoh, he went forward to look at them every 15 or 20 minutes. Nobody on board the Adolph saw a green light on the Fernande at any time. The fact that when she turned her starboard side towards the Adolph in luffing, just prior to the collision, those on the Adolph should not have observed the green light, if it was there, is not, indeed, a circumstance entitled to muoh weight on this question. The veasel herself being within sight, those watching her would not be likely to look for a light, and might easily overlook it. Yet this fact is entitled to some weight, and, on the whole, I think the existence of the green light at the time the vessels came in sight of each other is not made out with sufficient certainty to constitute proof of neg- ligence in the lookout in not seeing the green light, if, before he saw the red light, the starboard bow of the Fernande was turned towards him. Nor am I prepared to hold, ou the tes- timony, that if the lookout might have seen the light or lights of the Fernande sooner, the Adolph did not seasonably port. It is true that, in the answer, it is not charged as a specifie act of negligence that the Fernande had no green light ; but the libel alleges, and the answer denies, that she had proper lights set and burning, and the question here is whether the libellant has proved a material fact which must be first estab- lished before the question of the alleged fault of not keeping a proper lookout, in this respect, can arise. The third charge, that the Adolph ported when and as she did, has been already discussed. �The case has some features of special difficulty and is not free from doubt, but upon the whole evidence I am not able to find the faults charged against the Adolph, or any one of them, proven. The witnesses from the Adolph seemed to me ����