Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/936

 922 FEDBBAL EEPORTBB. �boat Kate Stewart while being towed by the Vigilant up Glen Cove creek. Glen Cove «"eek is a small arm of the sea running from the Sound to the village of Glen Cove. This creek, at low water, ia a small birbdk; at high water, it as navigable for vessels drav^iag not more than six feet. When the tide is in, the channel varies in width from 25 to 75 feet, and is crooked. In March, 1880, the tug Vigi- lant contracted to tow the canal-boat Kate Stewart, then lying at the stakes off the mouth of the creek with a load of coal on board, from the place of mooring to the dock of the Glen Cove Starch Factory, iiear the head of the creek. On the seventh of March the tug started to perfdrm this contract, taking the Kate Stewart and two other canal-boats on a bridle astern, the tide being about slack- water flood. In making the turn to enter the creek the canal-boats did not follow the tug, and the Kate Stewart grounded on the right bank near Car- penter's dock. After some unsuccessful efforts to pull the Kate Stew- art off the mud, the Vigilant left her and proceeded up the creek with the two other canal-boats. Shortly she returned and hauled the Kate Stewart off, and then proceeded to tow her up the creek, this time upon a single hawser astern, instead.of a bridle. In making the next turn it appeared to those in charge of the tug that the canal- boat was in danger of running upon some rocks whioh lie near the left bank just above the turn. With the idea of preventing the canal-boat from striking upon these rocks the tug bore off to the right, and, in so doing, grounded herself upon the right bank of the creek. When the tug stopped, hy reason of grounding, the canal-boat moved past the tug, the hawser being cast off by direction of those on the tug ; but when the momentum acquired from the tug had spent its force the canal-boat drifted back, the tide having then begun to fall, her stern caught on the right bank, her bow swung around and caught on the left bank, and so she was left, her bow and stern rest- ing upon the banks of the creek, but without support midships, so that, as is claimed, she sustained serions damage when the tide felL To recover this damage is the object of this suit. �The evidence plainly shows that the immediate cause of the grounding of the canal-boat was the grounding of the tug. An effort was made to prove that the canal-boat would not have grounded if she had let go an anchor, or made proper use of a pole to keep her- self in the channel. But I am not convinced that the letting go an anchor in this narrow place would have prevented the canal-boat from grounding, or that she could have been kept in the channel, ��� �