Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/727

 712 FEDERAL REPORTER. �And also to the analogous reasoning of the learnod judge of the eastern district of New York in Millbank v. The Schooncr Cran- mer, 1 Fed. Eep. 256. �I think it sufScient, for the purposes of this case, to say that in both the cases cited the collisions occurred in a crowded stream or roadstead, where all vessels are charged with increased obligations of mutual care, which do not bear upon them when upon the open sea. But in this case the collision occurred upon the open lake, where there was ample sea-room to have made every maneuver necessary to insure safety, There were no other vessels to interfere with such maneuvers, and, so far as the evidence shows, no lights of other vessels to bewilder or embarrass the parties in charge of the steamer. The obvious duty of this steamer, under the sailing rules, especially as she was encumbered by her tows, was to immediately or in ample time take such steps as would prevent the two vessels from coming in dangerous proximity to each other. �By the sailing rules the schooner was bound to keep her course. ihere is nothing in the rules, nor in the nature of the two vessels, that requires or allows a sailing-vessel to change her course when she sights the lights of an approaching steamer with tows. Her duty under the rules is to keep her course, and the duty of the steamer is to keep out of the way of the sailing-vessel. The steamer bas the right to elect on which side of the sailing-vessel she will pass, but is bound to exercise that right with sound judgment; and therefore any deviation by the sailing-vessel from her course would embarrass the steamer and endanger both. Notwithstanding the fact that the Favorite had barges in tow, she was still a steamer, and under rules 20 and 21 bound to keep out of the way of the schooner. Her officers knew that owing to the three barges astern she was, for the purposes of many maneuvers upon the lake, lengthened to the extent of her barges and the tow lines Connecting them to her, and that, therefore, it would take longer to make the necessary detour from the course of the schooner in order to secure safety; and the only differ- ence I can see between the obligation of a steamer with or without tows upon the open lake, as these two vessels were situated, is that the steamer, when encumbered with tows, must commence her maneu- vers so promptly after sighting the lights of a sailing-vessel as to make sure that she will not only herself go clear of the sailing-ves- sel, but that her tows will also go clear. �The sailing-vessel, in a crowded roadstead, coming close to tows tinder the coutrol of a tug, is, undoubtedly, bound to use such reason- ��� �