Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/920

 908 FEDERAL EBPOBTBB. �of contact with the schooner as far aft as the stern davit. These facts make a case of fault on the part of the steamer, provided the schooner was displaying lights capable of being seen by the steamer at a sufficient distance to enable her to avoid the schooner. The case, so far as the steamer is con- cerned, must, therefore, turn upon the question of lights upon the schooner. Upon this question there is a conflict of evidence, but a careful study of the testimony has satis- fied me that the weight of the evidence is that the schooner, as she approached the steamer, was displaying a light capable of being seen by those iu charge of the steamer in time to enable her to avoid the schooner, The evidence from the steamer on this point is the testimony of two sea- men, who were stationed upon the|„steamer's bow aa.lookouts, and who agree iu declaring that they were keeping a.watch-r fbl lookout, saw the schooner first when close at hand, and saw no light upon her. In addition there is from, the steamer the testimony of seyeral persoil^, whpi,observed the schooner from, the. instant of collision, and observed no Hgbt upon her lintil af^cr the vessels had .passed each other, when she dis- played a.whitelight. �' .,^he veight of the testimony of those on board.the steamer, who speak as to what they observed at the moment of col- lision, and immediately thereafter, is diminished by the faict that these observations were mq-de in the confusion and ex- citement necessarilyincidetit to such a serious collision, and by the further fact that it is diffieult to reconcile the state- ment of seyeral of the witnesses from the steamer that the port side of the schooner was presented to the steamer, as she swept past the steamer's starboard side, with the nature of the blow, the absence at that time of head-sails on the schooner, the injury to the starboard side of the schooner, and the mbvements of the schooner after the blow, as testi- , fied to by those on board of her. �In opposition to this testimony from the steamer, there is from the schoonor the direct and positive testimony of six persons that both the red and green lights of the schooner were set and burning brightly at the time of the collision. ��� �