Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/134

 THE PANGUSSETT. 119 �PanguEBett could not, if she had kept her course, have passed safely on the starboard aide. Therefore, having departed from the rule which required Mm to keep his course, he must show that the move- ment did not contribute to cause the collision, or his vessel will be chargeable with fault. This is not shown. It does not appear that if the Yankee Doodle had kept her course instead of keeping ofif there would still have been a collision. It is not proven that the Pangus- sett could not, by keeping off when the Yankee Doodle cbanged her course, have avoided the collision if the Yankee Doodle had kept her course. Especially, in view of the f act that the speed of the Yankee Doodle was decreased, as her master thinks, to a mile an hour, it was not proved that the relative positions of the vessels and their distance apart rendered this impossible. This being so, the Yankee Doodle had no right to assume that to keep on to starboard was the only possible odurse for the Pangussett to take. The movement was based upon an inference of the master that the other vessel intended to keep on and pass him on the starboard side. This was a mistake. He had no right to change his course on such a supposition. He was not called uponto aid the Pangussett in the duty the lawimposed on her to keep ont of his way. The resuit showed that this attempt to aid not only failed of its purpose, but actually embarrassed the move- ment taken by the Pangussett to avoid the Yankee Doodle, and con- tributed to produce the collision. Nor is the responsibility of the Yankee Doodle relieved by the subsequent luffing of the Pangussett just before the collision. Assuming that this was also a mistake, and an ill-judged effort, in the presence of immediate danger, to avoid a collision, yet the vessels were brought into that immediate danger partly by the Yankee Doodle's failure to keep her course, and it can- not be claimed that this last error of the Pangussett alone caused the collision. �Both vessels being in fault the damages must be apportioned. Decree accordingly. ��� �