Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/189

 THIl BTEAM-SgiP OPER. 1,75 �officer the condition of ihe veather, may well havebeentlie reason ■why his eyes did not sooner catch the bark's light. �To the argument based upon the courses and specd of the re-. spective vessels, as the same are admitted or proved beyond a doubt,, it is answered, in behalf of the steamer, that - this theory is incon- sistent with the testimony of those on board the bark ii) regard. tft seeing the steamer 's green light as she approached-i Manifestly,- however, the green light of the steamer was ..visible to those on board the bark at some time before theiOollision. A mistake in the stateq ments of the witnesses for the bark in respect to seeing the greeu; light of the steamer is, therefore, a mistake of time and distance ; and a mistake in regard to time and distance, in cases of thisfa^-r scription, does not necessarily discredit a witness, Besides, there is in this case testimony drawn from witnesses prpduced hy the steamer tending to show that the ranges of the side lights ot the steamei: crossed each other inside the steamer's stem, in whieh case; it :would be possible for those on the bark to see the steamer's green light when approaching at a considerable distance on the course given by the answer. : /i �Stress bas been laid by tho advocate f or ■ the steamer upon lan- guage used by the .crew of the bark in speaking of the 8teamer,'as indicating that the steamer was approaching from aft; and when she oould not see the side lights of the bark. But the expressions "an' gling forward," "up on our side," "almost along-side," "right alongi side," "standing forward," and the like, do not appear to me to be inconsistent with the description of the cdursea of the vessels as fixed by the answer, the conceded direction of the wind and the weather, and speed of the two vessels, Besides, it must be remembered that the expressions referred to are those used by the interpreter to give his idea of what the Norwegian phrases, used by the witnesses, were intended to mean, and cannot be too implicitly relied on. So^ too, importance is attached by the claimantsto the line drawn by the seamen of the bark to represent the course of the. steamer wh;en>ar8t seen by them. That line may very well represent the direction of the blow given by the steamer after the wheei of the steamer had been put hard a-port, and that of the bark hard a-starboard; but it oannou truly represent the relative bearing of the courses of the re-» Epective vessels as they were approaching eachr other, f ojr thg course marked for the steamer being, as the answer istates, we,st by inorthi half west, would make the course of the bark about northwest, — an impossible course with the wind as given by the steamer. ��� �