Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/131

 116 FEDERAL REPORTER. �even after the Yankee Doodle had changed her course several points by keeping off, as her -witnesses testify that it did. The speed of the Yankee Doodle had been very much diminished by her keeping so close to the wind. Her master thinks she was not working more than a mile an hour when she kept off. She had more sail on than the Pangussett, and as she kept off she would, of course, increase her speed; and when it was seen that the Pangussett was keeping off also, which was discovered by seeing her two lights nearly abeam, the master of the Yankee Doodle let go her main-sheet, which also tended to give her more speed. But upon first keeping off she mnst, it would seem, have moved forward less rapidly than the Pangussett did when she first kept off. In view of these circumstances, and the length of time the green light of the Pangussett remained in sight, I am unable to credit this statement of the mate, and think that it is made out that the Yankee Doodle was the first to keep off, and that almost immediately afterwards the Pangussett kept off. �The evidence, I think, shows that the vessels were very near each other when the Yankee Doodle kept off. Her master estimated the distance of the Pangussett when she crossed the bows of the Yankee Doodle at less than a quarter of a mile. Other witnesses make the distance half that or less. There are indications in the testimony on both sides that the time was very brief between the Pangussett crossing the bow of the Yankee Doodle and the collision. The esti- mates of the time from the first seeing of the light to the happening of that event, and from that event to the collision, make the latter period of time a very small proportion of the whole time the vessels were in sight of each other. When the master of the Yankee Doodle conoluded to keep off, his order was to keep hard off; and not satisfied with the way the wheelsman turned his wheel he reproved Him for not being quick, and put his own hand to the wheel. The wheels- man of the Yankee Doodle thought that if both vessels had kept on they would not have cleared, but might have cleared if the Yankee Doodle had kept on and the Pangussett had luffed up quickly. The master of the Pangussett was lying down in his cabin and heard the alarm of the lookout caused by his seeing the two lights of the Yankee Doodle. He instantly rushed on deck and jumped tfpon the taffrail, and saw the Yankee Doodle right ahead of the Pangussett, the collis- ion following almost instantly. These circumstances, with others, strongly tend to show that when the vessels kept off they were very near together. On the part of the Pangussett it is denied that she luffed after keeping off. Her mate testifies that her tiller was not ��� �