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f ee a _ boats forming a flotilla composed of six tiers, libelant was not in charge ot her and had TIME LAW. | to the eastward away from the shore, and ING—LEAVING THE wreck | that the helper tug went around trying to PROTECTION — DAMAGE _1N-| break or loosen theive. I cannot find any ‘:ASED THEREBY—APPOINTMENT.—GaL- | OMission of duty or skill under the circum- VY. THE STEAMTUG YOUNG AMERICA, | Stances and must hold, therefore, that the '§. District Court, Southern District of | tug is not answerable upon the ground of be New York, any negligence causing the libelants boat to A tug, with a large fleet of boats in tow, | Strike upon a rock. _ ‘came up through the Bay to New York. In The evidence shows, however, that after the Lower Bay she encountered a quantity | she had struck and attempts had been made ice, which drove her toward the Staten and “shore, where libelants canal boat by the tender Winne to pump her out so : Pcnera sot arock. The tug left no one in| that she might be towed away, she was left ; charge of the wreck and came on to New} without any persons in charge, and that York, On returning to the aid of the canal| afterwards some persons upon the shore ese lie Secueres of the aide claiming authority, as wreckers, took pos- culties and delayes arising from the dis- sition of the bozt and prevented the claim- puted anthority, libelant’s boat became | ants from again resuming possession and rp ‘ pal geil th hale tte he. bal raising her as they attempted to do, through re tug for tne e, held, o e evidence, “ that the stranding was caused through no me euat went. gown for: Hat P ATP Ose and fault on the part of the tug, butas it was her that in consequence of this disputed duty, having the chfirge of the canal boat,| authority and the difficulties and delays Shane” made Bee ioe ine ie a arising from it, the libelant’s boat became a cident, to prevent her falling into the hands s ; of third persons under color of authority, Pee ere crane, Indicates. ‘prevty and as her failure to do this contributed to| Clearly that but for this interference the the final loss, and it was impossible to de-| boat might have been raised and the Joss tage Be ta ahia toick gl meee of a very greatly lessened. - I think it was the oss was due to the original stranding, an ‘ ; ; how much tothe subsequent want of pro- claimant’s duty, having the custody and charge ot the libelant’s boat, to have made tection, the damage should be divided. Brown, J. all necessary arrangements before leaving The libelant was the owner of the canal | her, to prevent her falling into the hands of boat Beakly, which was one of twenty tour | third persons under color of authority. The ot four boats in a tier, in tow of the Young|no power todo anything in respect to her. America upon a hawser. The libelant’s boat} [t was in the power of the claimants, and as was the outer boat on the port side of the| [ have said, the boat was in their custody. fourth tier. On the 12th of February, 1885, | ‘Chey must be held answerable, therefore, the steamtug Young America started from|tor the great increase of the damages, Perth Amboy to tow the fleet to New York. | through their fault, wnich contributed to the Finding the Kills chocked with ice, and im-| final loss. ‘he nature of the case is such passible she came through the lower bay, | that itseems clearly impossible to determine along the southern shore of Staten Island.| with exactness how much of the whole loss Atter passing between the cann and spar] is attributable to the original stranding, and buoys, about halt a mile below the Narrows, | how much to the subsequent want of pro- she there met, as her witnesses allege, a/ tection. The only thing that can be dune large field of ice coming up from the bay| under such circumstances is to divide the with the flood tide. By this ice and the set | damages a: in the case of Snow v. Carruth, of the flood tide toward the Staten [sland] 1 Sprague 324, and’see The Max Morris, 24 shore, as they allege, the fleet was crowded | Fed. Rep. 860, 863. to the extreme westerly side of the channel)| January 21, 1886, so that the libelant’s boat when about op- posite Fort Wadsworth, in the narrow part ‘A NEW PUMPING DREDGE. of the straight, struck upon arock, andsub-| Qn the south-west coast of Long Island, sequently became nearly a total loss. The} pordering on Jamaica Bay, and the numer- libel was filed to recover the damages. ous neighboring inlets, are many thousands The witnesses for the libelant allege that) of acres of salt meadow, submerged about there was little or no ice to obstruct the| two feet by the highest tides. ‘This land, course of the tug. On their part itis claimed | ag it lies is practically valueless, but if raised that the accident arose through inexperience | above tide mark, at once becomes extremely of the pilot, and his voluntary selection of| valuable asa site for summer residences; the westerly shore, and that he ran upon the | and eyen now a syndicate of capitalists is rocks because he mistoke his proper course | oontemplating the creation of a second and passed too near Fort Wadsworth. A Venice in the marsh back ot Coney I+land number of witnesses on the part of the libel- by excavating a series of canals, and from ant state thatthere was noice. [tis aleourged | the material thus obtained raising the ad- that the tide was no longer running flood at joining land. the time of the accident, which was after) ‘his being the condition of affairs, a recent dark at about 6:30 p.m. The evidence as | visit to this locality proved that a number to the precise time, however, is not so| of contractors, with plant ranging from certain as to admit of reliance upon the shovels and barrows to elaborate dredging arguments with respect to a change of the| outfits, were attempting the solution of the | tide. | STITT RE SSR RITE BSCS formed for a steamer line to ply between| from depth ranging up to fifty feet by a New York and the future summer resorts pte ovate ba be ee Pulsom- to be erected upon the land formed by the eal De he Wee. Valves” erie ORDEOahy: c igned for this work. Underneath the oh of the dredged material from the ca overhanging frame-work, shown in Fig. 1, isa track rai], made of two channel bara, which commands the sides and ends of the boat: and on this track, and protec- ted by its form from the cutting effect of sand, ete., runs a four wheeled truck. The dredging pump is suspended from this truck by chains and pulley blocks oper- ated by steam hoists within the boat. The pump outwardly resembles the familiar Pulsometer 'oo much to require special | illustration, and the peculiar valves and fr fittings we are not yet permitted to make HA ' public, owing to further patents. still m4 pending. AA To the bottom of this pnmp is attached tM the suction pipe, about twelve feet long (thongh this can be lengthened or short- i) ened through reasonable limits,) and at \ i the end of this suction is fixed one of the HH \ important features of the pumping dredge. This 13 the “digger,’’ as shown io Figs. 2 and 38, which, under the constant oscil- lation, due to the action of the susp2nded pump and the natural motion of the boat, tears up the bottom soil over a diameter | of about six feet and reduces any clay, h 'umps, turf, or conglomerated material of Yy almost any kind, to a size suitable for passing through the openings in thestrain- er inthe base of the “digger.’’? As plainly shown in Fiz. 3, the teeth of the digger can be readily replaced in case of neces- sity, and the strainer can be opened for ease in cleaning. As a matter of fact, however, we are intormed that so tar in the present machine there has been no occasion to open the strainer at all, After the material passes the pump it is lifted to the hopper through an iron discharge pipe fitted with very strong gun- metal flangee, and terminating in a valvanized iron,’’ gooseneck”? ag shown. The pipe is attached to a strong collar fixed upon the rolling truck. Steam is conveyed from the boilers to the pump, or pumps, through a continueus pipe running around the boat and fitted at inter- inno i “hi TIN Mig {Mh times necessarily suspended, with the pump and discharge column filled with sand, this material must be kept in motion, otherwise it would settle and pack so solidly, that there would be much trouble Hi in s‘arting again. This end is ac- ,0mplished by a water pipe runnin around the boat and connected wit! a Pu'someter pump in board, and \ with the base of the discharge col- umn of the working pamp. When the dredge pump stops, thefsecond pump is started and water is con- tinuously forced into and through the material contained in the dis- charge column, and keeps it in mo- tion ready for the resumption of pumping. Though the scow upon which the present plant at Coney Island is mounted is an experimental affair, hastily put together and not well adapted for fully testing the merits of the pumping device, sufficient good work has been done to war- rant the inventor in claiming an average capacity of one cubic yard per minute per pump; nearly two cubic yards per minute have actually been lifted, but with the re- sult that the hopper and conveyor trough there provided were choked and the pump- Fie. 3.—THE STRAINER. But to utilize the dredged matter it must be economically conveyed on to the territory adjoining the channel and that through dis- tances ranging up to several thousand feet. | =| ing had to be stopped. The pump | | | | There is no evidence in the case of such has handled mud, sand, gravel, circumstances existing at the time the fleet clay and a species of turf or peat; set out fron Perth Amboy as would make and the average of solids lifted is the tug chargeable with negligence for start- | ing out aud undertaking to bring up the confidently put at 50 per cent. of the total volume. Mr. Badger claims that experimentally 80 per tow. She is liable, therefore, only upon proof of waut of suitable care and skill un- der the circumstances that she met. The burden of proof to show negligence is upon the libelant. Ihave carefully considered the evidence from the numerous witnesses in the case; I find it impossible to hold that the libelant makes out by any preponderance of proof that the course through the Nar- rows was free trom ice. Onthe contrary, I must hold that the preponderance of proof is the other way, and that the tow was crowded in, as the claimants witnesses allege. Most of the witnesses for the libelant were not dischaging any duties that required | them to observe carefully as to the existence of ice, much Jess to navigate with reference toit. It was acold night. They were going | in and out of their cabins and they were not| problem of raising the material from the | in asituation that would naturally direet | Water ways and conveying it on to the land | their attention to the conditions with | thus to be enhanced in value. In this par- which the tug had to contend. There was | ticular locality, all filling must be obtained no ice on the port side, where the libelant from beneath the water surface, that being was; what there was, was on the opposite | the only available source of supply ; and the side of the tow, some 60 feet distant from | deepening of existing channels and the him, and it was dark. The evidence on the creation of new cuts are just as important part of the tug isso minute and detailed | as the making of new lands. Owing to the that their story cannot be discredited, with- natural conformation ot these inlets and out assuming on their part gross fabrication | the fact that they have been used as recep- and perjury. Their statements are also | tacles for sewage and are being filled, with confirmed in some measure by the evidence | all manner of refuse, their cleansing and | from a steamer that went down the bay the| rectification is a necessity. Ab important} same night and encountered so much ice in|improvement suggested in this line is a| the same place that she was obliged to put broad and deep canal to be cut back of | back. The fact that another tug a quarter o1 | Coney Island from the lower end of Graves- half a mile ahead escaped is not consistent | end Bay to Sheepshead Bay and thence by with the claimant’s story. The evidence | another short cut entering Jamaica Bay | shows that from 20 minutes to half an hour,| and even beyond. The results would be a} the powerful tug was pulling almost directly | better water circulation, an inside route Fie. 1.—THE DREDGE. cent, of solids have been raised under very favorable conditions, and that he will gnarantee 50 per cent, in mud and sand. As the number of pumps that can be worked at one time is only limit- ed by the size of the boat and the boiler power at hand, the ca- pacity of the dredge is simplya question of first outlay in plant, The work done testifies to its excellent character, and to the | presence of very good sized peb- bles conveyed far inland. We learn that a plant of this descrip- tion has just been made for the Pate Placer Gold Mining Compa- ny to work on the Nechi river, | in the United States of Colombia, and that arrangements are now being made to work ina similar manner some of the gold-bearing rivers of Among the dredges at work, there was one Honduras. that was intended to accomplish just this BUOYANT PROPELLER FOR STEAM- charecter of work. This was the pumping BOATS dredge invented by Mr.G. F. Badger, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Briefly described there is The two cylindrical floats that support first, a strongly built boat, similar in gen-| the body of the boat are preferably made eral appearance to the view shown in| cigar-shaped, and each is placed upon a cen- Fig. 1. Upon this boat is a heavy plant| tral shaft journaled at their ends in up- of steam boilers arranged in four or six] rights atttached to the body, so that the sets so as to best adapt the power to the| fluats may be revolved for propelling the work to be performed. On top of the| boat. For this purpose the floats are pro- dredge scow, supported by a strong tim-| vided with spiral blades at their rear ends. ber frame work, isa hopper-like rceptacle | It will be noticed that these blades are only for the material lifted, and from the cen-| formed for a short distance from the ends ter of this elevated hopper a galvanized | of the floats—about one-third of the length iron, egg-shaped trough leuds to the land | —so that the water will not be ruffled di- to be raised anywhere within a distance | rectly under, but only in the rear of the of 2,000 feet. Sufficient water is pumped | float. The various means by which the with the sand, ete., to convey this mate- | floats can be revolved will vary uccording rial to the desired point of deposit, and | to the shape of the body, which may bein the filling being packed by water is per- | the form of a flat boatdecked, One arrange- manent and without any subsequent set | ment for operating the floats consists of a ling. The conveyor pipe is supported| crank shaft carrying a gear wheel meshing overthe water upon floats and over the land | with a pinion of the float shaft; this gear by trestles. | wheel is connected by an intermediate gear The mud sand gravel, ete. is lifted! with a pinion on the second float shaft. vals with suitable branches and | valves. As the pumping may beat