Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/129

 114 FEDERAL REPORTER. �Burprised by seeing the two lights of the other vessel bearing dowri on them, he had, at most, but two very brief glimpses of the light. It was in sight several minutes before the two lights came into their view, and.he testifies that having ported enough, as he thought, to clear the other vessel, he asked the lookout, when he thought he ought to see it aft of the deck load, whether it was nearly abeam; that the lookout replied, "Not quite." There is no confirmation of this conversation, and I cannot credit it, because one of the lookouts says that the light was never more than three-quarters of a point on the port bow, and the other does not give it a bearing that could in any sense properly be described as "not quite abeam." But the tes- timony of the mate clearly shows that although, as officer of the deck, he was bound to keep the light constantly in view after it was reported till all possibility of collision had passed, yet he failed wholly to do so, and, having changed his course, as he thought, suffi- ciently to clear it, took it for granted that he would clear it, and took no more notice of it till roused by the alarm of the lookout. His testimony as to what was seen from his vessel, therefore, is of very little value. And whether it is a case of false testimony or of gross misjudgment as to bearing, or (what is not impossible) a case of mistaking the light of another vessel on their port bow for the light of the vessel whose two lights they afterwards saw, but whose light they may not have seen at all befofe, it must be held that they had the Yankee Doodie on their starboard bow, and not on their port bow, all the time, and that if they ported a point and a half, and kept on that new course, as the mate testifies, even that movement did not bring the light of the other vessel on their port bow. �Assuming, then, that the Pangussett was crossing the bow of the Yankee Doodie from port to starboard, showing her green light all the time, it would of course happen, when she reached the point where her course intersected that of the Yankee Doodie, that she wotild see both lights of the Yankee Doodie. There is no reason, therefore, for rejecting the testimony of those on the Pangussett that, after seeing the red light for several minutes, they suddenly saw both lights. This is in. entire harmony with the testimony of those on the Yankee Doo- die, that the Pangussett crossed their bow. The men on the Pangus- sett, however, appear to have inferred from this seeing of the two lights that the other vessel was keeping off across their course. On the theory that they had ported sufficiently to clear hor, and that their earlier observation of her bearing was correct, this inferenoe would have been correct. But on the assumption that the light had ��� �