Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/651

 tpe effie j. simm0n8. 639 �' The Epfie J. Simmons. �{Distriet Court, B. Mfwachusetts. April 15, 1881.) �1. T0O AND Tovr^NEGLIOBNCB. �A tug is borind to know the nature of the bottom of the stream and the depth of the water in which it ia employed. �2. Samb— SaMe. �A schooner, while being towed up the Charles river, as the tide ■was runniiig ont, grounded with her head up stream, in such a posi- tion that she would probably have sustained no injury if she had not been disturbed. The tug, however, attempted to haul her ofl, and flnally left her with her sternfast where it flrst touched, but her head projecting into the channel, where the bottom was sufflciently uneven to cause her to strain and break. Hdd, that the tug was in fault in thus attempting to pull the vessel ofl. — [1:0. �F. Dodge and E. L. Dodge, for libellant- �Frank Goodwin, for respondents. �Nelson, D. J, The respondents undertook, by their tug- boat, the Charles River, to tow the schooner Effie J. Sim- mons, laden -with coal, up Charles river, from Crague's bridge to Henderson's -wharf, in Brighton. As the depth of the channel at higb: water is only 12 feet, and the draught of the schpoiior, as she was loaded, was 11^ feet, this could be done only at or very near high water. On the passage up the river the schooner grounded aiid sustained injury. The acci- dent seems to have occurred in this way : When the two vessels reaohed a point in the river opposite Gouch's wharf, the tide having then begun to fall, the tug slackened her speed, and passed a little to the south of what may be called the low- water channel of the river, in order to avoid another vessel then lying moored to the northerly bank with an anchor out into the stream. Where the schooner passed the water had slightly diminished in depth, and her stem touched bottom and stuck fast. The bottom at this point, up and down the stream, was smooth and even; and if the schooner had been left in the position she was in when she touched, — that is, headed directly up the stream, — she would have rested, as the tide fell, evenly on the whole length of her keel, and in ail ��� �