Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/133

 118 FBDEBAL BBPOETBR. �up of the Yankee Doodle a point nearer the wind, as soon as the light of the PanguBsett waa discovered, aflfects the case. It had no tendency to mislead the other vessel, as it did not change the light shown. It made it more certain that the other vessel would see only the red light. The change was made when they "were so far apart that it could safely be made without embarrassment, and it did not in fact conduce to the collision. The Pangussett, on making the light of the Yankee Doodle, recognized her duty to keep out of the way if sbe ported, as the mate testifies, but she failed to make effectuai the maneuver intended to be performed of shaping her course so as to pass on the port side of the other vessel, either by not porting enougb, or, after porting, by not keeping steady on her new course. This failure is primarily to be attributed to a very gross failure of those in charge of her to keep a good lookout. The negligence of the mate in this respect is especially reprehensible. It is as clearly the duty of the officer of the deck, after a light is reported, to keep it in view and to watch its movements, and the effect of the movements of his own vessel taken with reference to it, as it is of the lookout to see and report a light that comes in view. The Star of Scotia 2 Fed. Ebp. 592. Yet this mate, confessedly, was where he could not perform this duty, because of the pile of wood on deck before him; and, upon his own showing, he was navigating his vessel by questioning the lookout as to the movements of the other vessel. On his own testimony, he shaped his course to clear her, as he Bupposed, and then took no more notice of her till the alarm of the lookout that she was coming down on him, exeept to put this question to the lookout. This was gross carelessness, and brought the vessels into a position of much greater risk of collision than they were when he first made the light, and directly tended to cause the collision. The responsibility for avoiding the colhsion, however, was still on the Pangussett, and she made another maneuver by keeping off. This also was a mistake, based upon an erroneous inference as to the previous course and movements of the Yankee Doodle, and is properly to be charged to the previous failure to keep a good look- out. �Yet I am not able to justify the Yankee Doodle in her change of course by keeping off after she saw that the Pangussett had crossed her bows. It was not the case of a movement rendered neeessary to avoid immediate danger under the twenty-fourth rule. It is not claimed to be such in the pleadings, nor upon the testimony of the master of the Yankee Doodle hiraself. He does not testify that the ��� �