Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/429

 41e fbdebal bepobteb. ered suitable, however, for short excursions on the ocean, except in rough and tempestuous weather. Slie had no sails. The area of her upper works presented to the wind, technically called her " free-board," was eissentially large as a sea-going vessel for her draught and tonnage, and her anchors were one of 1,699 pounds, (without the stock,) and the other of 1,994 pounds, pro- vided with 60 and 75 f athoms of chain. The rule for sea-going vessels, of the same tonnage, would require one anchor of 2,800 pounds, and one of 3,200 pounds. During the summers of 1880 and 1881 she was employed in making daily trips from New York to Long Branch, going outside of Sandy Hook and thence along the New Jersey coast about 13 miles, and landing her passen- gers at the iron pier built out from the beach some 900 feet. She has carried as many as 3,000 passengers, and sometimes, from the roughness of the sea, she has been obliged to return without landing. On the seventeenth of Aug'ist, 1881, she left her dock at Twenty-third street upon one of her usual trips at a little af ter 9 o'clock in the morning, with about 500 to 600 passen- gers on board, besides some 75 others, — ^musicians, servants, seamen, etc. On passing the Narrows the weather and sea were found to be rough, and the wind was blowing a moderato gale from the north-east and the tide flood. She proceeded, however, upon her course, and when about a mile beyond the «nd of the Hook, at about half past 11 a. m., the steam-pipe was suddenly broken, letting all thesteam from lier boilers escape, and she thereby became «ompletely disabled and helpless in her motive power. The steam passed mostly out midships, through the opening for the piston and walking-beam ; but a considerable amount penetrated the main deck and into the saloon above, ereating for a time a panic among the passengers and musicians. I do not and from the evidence that the offlcers or crew shared in the general confusion or alarm, or failed in their appropriate duties. The evidence is very conflicting in regard to the distance of the Plymouth Rock from the beach at the time of the accident. I shall adopt the position assigned her upon the ehart by Capt Ladd, the pilot in charge, which in- dicates about three-eighths of a mile, or about 2,000 feet from the shore. This position was near her usual track, in the deep water of the False Hook channel, where her progress would be easiest. In the rough weather of that day it is altogether improbable that she would go much further eastward, so as to be notonly out of her usual course but in the shallow waters overthe False Hook, where she would labor more and her progress be less easy. At 10 o'clock that morning the wind had been blowing a moderate gale of 32 miles per hour from the north-east directly on shore, according to the record kept at Sandy Hook ; at 11 : 15 it blew 22 miles, and at 3 p. M. it was but 13 miles per hour. Just before the accident, one schooner was observed going to sea without reef in her sails, but in general most other vessels — pilot-boats. and others — had hauled under the Hook for shelter. The steamer Plymouth Bock met some of them comlng in, — the tug J. B. Schuyler, the Blackbird with a fishing party, — a pilot-boat, under double-reefed sails, going inside, under the lee of the Ilook. The sea was recorded as " heavy," the testimony fully sustaining the record; and the tide was a Strong liood, setting partly