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34 COURT DECISIONS. COLLISION.--The steamer Siemens, with a barge in tow on a line from 700 to 800 feet long, each loaded with 5,000 tons of ore, was passing down St. 'Mary's river, and when the tow was a half mile above the entrance to Little Rapids cut, the steamer North Star, also loaded, overtaking the barge sig- nalled her intention to pass to port. The Siemens answered by a dissenting 'signal, and kept her course and speed which | was 8 or 9 miles an hour. The North Star persisted, and, when a quar- ter of a mile from the cut again signalled, and the Siemens again dissented. A change of course to starboard was nec- essary to enter the cut, and, before the Siemens could make the turn with her tow and straighten out in the cut, a col- lision occurred between her and_ the North Star, which also entered the cut on her port side, and, as a result, a further collision occurred between the two steamers, and between the Siemens and her tow, the cut being but 300 feet wide. By the rules, it was lawful for an overtaking vessel to pass another above the cut, but it was not lawful for a vessel to proceed at a speed greater than 9 miles an hour or to overtake and pass another in the cut. The circuit court of appeals for the second circuit held that the North Star was in fault, not only for viola- 'tion of the positive rule as to speed, but for a reckless persistence when it was obvious at the time her first s'g- nal was answered that she could -not pass before reaching the cut; that the Siemens was not in fault, it being her privilege under the rules to maintain her course and speed until she was overtaken, when, and not before, she was required by rule 5 of the secre- tary's rules to assent to the passing, and slacken to a slow rate of speed, and the situation being such when she received the first signal as to justify her in refusing to assent or to slacken her speed because of her tow. GENERAL RULES AFFECTING LIABILITY FOR INJURIES: BY VESSELS.--There is a general provision in the rules of navigation, that nothing therein con- tained shall exonerate any | vessel, or the owner or master or crew thereof, from the consequences of the neglect of any precaution which may be required by the ordinary practice of seamen or by the special circum- stances of the case. (Rule 28, Rules for Great Lakes.) Whenever danger of collision has become manifest, and the vessel previously bound to avoid it is plainly neglecting her duty to do so, the circumstances are special and the "TAE MARINE REVIEW other vessel must do what she can to, prevent disaster. Flagrant fault com- mitted by one of the vessels will not excuse the other from adopting every reasonable and practicable precaution to prevent a collision. . Where a vessel is charged with hav- ing omitted to do something which ought to have been done, proof of three things is required: first, that it was clearly in the power of the vessel to have done the thing charged to have been omitted; secondly, that if done it would in all probability have 'prevented the collision; and, thirdly, that it was such an act as would have occurred to any officers of competent skill and experience. Whenever it ap- pears that one of the vessels has neg- lected the usual and proper measures of precaution, the burden is upon her ~ to show that the collision was not owing to her neglect, or that the other might nevertheless by ordinary care and skill have avoided the collision. There is a general provision in all the rules (Rule 27, Rules for Great Lakes) that in obeying and construing the rules due regard shall be had to all dangers of navigation and collision and to any special circumstance which may render a departure from the rules necessary in order to avoid immediate danger. A departure from the gen- eral rules is, therefore, not only al- lowed in some cases, but it follows that when observance of a rule would plain- ly tend to bring about a collision, and departure from the rule would avoid it, departure. becomes a duty. A ves- sel is in fault where a blind adherence to the rule that she shall keep her course necessarily results in a collision, which a change would probably have averted. Departure from the rules of naviga- tion is not favored by the courts, and exceptions are not to be lightly made; they are admitted with great caution, and only when imperatively required by the special circumstances of the case to avoid immediate danger, and then only to the extent that the dan- ger demands.: To excuse a departure from the rules there must be an actual necessity. Consideration of dis- cretion and expediency, or mere appre- hension of danger, or convenience will not suffice. It follows that under all ordinary circumstances a vessel dis- charges her full duty and obligation to another by a faithful and literal ob- servance of the rules. It is no excuse for a violation of a rule of navigation either that it was not known or is not generally observed, or that the vessel was embarrassed by proximity to other vessels, where there is no justification for being in such proximity. -without renewals. PENBERTHY AUTOMATIC ; INJECTOR. The "Penberthy" automatic injector is a perfect re-starting automatic ma- chine. By this we mean that when the injector is working, if the current of water be suddenly interrupted as is liable to happen from a sudden jar or jolt (on such apparatus as traction engines or road rollers or in the case of a marine boiler by the rolling of the vessel) this injector will auto- matically re-establish the current with- out attention from the attendant. This is one of the features that has OVERFLOW SECTIONAL VIEW OF THE PENBERTHY AUTO- MATIC INJECTOR. given the "Penberthy" such a_ hold among marine engineers and traction and threshing engine manufacturers of the United States. : The "Penberthy" is so constructed as to.have but few wearing parts and will last. for years with proper care All parts are inter- changeable, however, --when required. The Penberthy Injecton Co., of De- -troit, Mich., are pioneers and the larg- est manufacturers of automatic injec- tors in the world. Their steadily in- creasing business necessitating fre- quent enlargements of their already immense plant, is a fitting testimonial to the merits of their output. The steamen Capt. A. F. Lucas, with the Standard Oil barge No. 95 in tow, has left the port of Philadelphia for This is the third attempt to tow a barge across the ocean but the trip is largely in the way of an experi- ment as to whether or not the towing of barges in the trans-Atlantic trade is practicable. The two cargoes aggre- gated 4,000,000 gallons of refined pe- troleum in bulk. London.