Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/650

 636 FEDERAL REPORTER. �Btern. Any considerable change to the east under her starboard helm must necessarily cause her to jibe. This, the pilot of the steamer says, actually did occur. In jibing she would certainly be more unmanageable, and require more attention from the officers and crew, than she would if she had ported and attempted to corne furthejr up into the wind. Besides this, it is conceded she had on deck at the time, standing his watch, an incompetent boy. For some time after 6 o'clock he had been steering, When he left the wheel is by no means satisfactorily shown. The second mate says he himself took the wheel at five minutes past 6, and set the boy to shovelling ballast. The boy leaves the impression from his testi- mony at Urst that he was not at the wheel at all, but afterwards he said distinctly he had been steering until about half an hour before the collision, when the second mate relieved him, and told him to shovel over the ballasi. He alSo said if he had nnt been working at the ballast he should have been steering. From all the evidence, it is clear that, notwithstanding his incompetency, he was accustomed to take his trick at the wheel, and I am by no means satisfied that he had not been at the wheel up to the time the vessels got into dan- gerous proximity. �Without pursuing this branch of the case further, it is suffieient to say I am satisfied, from all the evidence, that the starboarding of the helm of the schooner contributed directly to the collision, and that it was a fault. • It was a wrong move, and no suffieient reason is given for making it. Neither do I think the schooner can be excused on the ground that it was done in the excitenjent of the moment, and when therewas no time for the exercise of deliberate judgment. The master saw the steamer going off suddenly to port. He waited an appreciable length of time after he saw the red light before doing any- thing, and then deliberately did what was exactly wrong. The most ordinary prudence would have dictated to him, as soon as he saw the red light coming diagonally across his bow, as it must have done according to his own showing, if he altered his course at all, to port his wheel and help the steamer in what she was doing. Any other alter- ation in his course at that time was a fault, and entirely inexcusable. �It only remains to consider whether the steamer was also in fault, and I am elearly of the opinion she was. Upon her rested the respon- sibility, under the statute, of keeping out of the way of the schooner. As bas already been seen, the vessels were approaching each other end on, or nearly end on, so as to involve the risk of collision. This con- dition of things continued until the order to port the helm of the ��� �