Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/185

 170 PEDEBAL BBPORTEB. �Cwrtis Tilton and Henry Flanders, for appellants. Thomas Hart, Jr., and J. Warren Goulston, for appellees. MoKennan, C. J. Finding of faets by the court : �(1) On the evening of the aixteenth of May, 1877, a little before 9 o'clock, a collision occurred between the scUooner Marietta iillon, of which the libel- lants were owners, and the steamer Harrisburgh, which resulted in the entire loss of the schooner and her cargo, and in the drowning of six of-her crew, — all but two of those who were aboard of her. �(2) The place where the collision occurred was within 100 yards of Cross Rip light-ship, off the coast of Massachusetts. �(3) The night was unusually clear, the moon shining in her flrst quarter, and objecta were distinctly visible at a long distance, the vessels havlng actually sighted each other when they were about four miles apart. �(4) At the point where the collision occurred the channel was nearly a mile wide, the light-ship being on the southern border of it, and there being a suf- flcient depth of water for the passage of the steamer in any part of it. �(5) The steam-ship was pursuing a westwardly course, heading for the light- ship upon a straight line which wbuld pass slightly north of it ; or, in the language of the mate, "I ported my bow and headed my ship for the light- ship, keeping the light a little on my port bow." This course she maintained without any deviation or reduction of her speed. �(6) The schooner was sailing eastwardly, and when she was flrst seen by the steamer her position was cohsiderably (not less than a half mile) horth of the line of the steamer's progiress, and so north-westward of the light-ship. When the vessels were at a safe distance apart the schooner lufied a little to the windward, and thence, sailing on the wind, which was from the South- west, she pursued a course directly towards the light-ship, upon a line which was oblique to that of the steamer's course, exposlng her port light to the steamer. This was the course laid down in the sailing directions for vessels bound eastward, and she kept it steadily. �(7) The courses of the vessels thus converglng to the light-ship, they must necessarily have moved upon interseeting lines. �(8) When they were within three or four hundred feet of each other, and the peril was imminent, the schooner ported and the steamer starboarded her helm, and ran stern on into the port side of the schooner and sank her. �CONCLUSIONS OF LAW. �Most of the facts found above are undisputed. Those which are of decisive significance have been the subjects of very earnest and exhaustive contestation, and the evidence touching them is, to some extent, conflicting. It bas, therefore, been the duty of the court to •collate and consider carefully this evidence; and it is believed that fche facts found are the resuit of the pieponderating weight of it, and of the inherent probability of their truth. It would be superfluous to vindicate these conclusions by a detailed discussion of the evidence, ��� �