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i i 5 4 | F reise any padi ait ee eee atic aerimdccssanse | i ; 6 Ihe Marine Revoni. Captain F. I. Merriman has been engaged by the owners of the schooner ‘Tilden to oversee the work of taking out the ore. He has one of his pontoons at work, and the other is in Dunford & Alverson’s dock to be recalked and put in shape to lift on the ‘Pilden. The schooner D. Provost was sold at mort- gage sale to Hines and others of Huron, O, for $710, but there is now a libe) on her. for sailors’ wages. Mr. Runnels and Captain Cornwell are to build a new tug for harbor towing at Port Huron, and they will then bavea line. They are now owners of the Kitty Haight and James Reid, The new tug is to have an engine 22x24 with a new steel bojler which wi!l be allowed 125 to 180 pounds of steam. The tug Kitty Haight went down to the Tilden to pull the pontoon that the Conger had left there, but the pontoon had drifted over the Tilden in such a way that it could not be released. Itisin abad plave. Again, on the 19th the Haight made an effort to pull the pontoon off, but did not succeed, It is with regret we have to record the sad tale of the loss of a number of the Port Huron boys who will uot meet with us again and spin tales of the good and the bad times they have had this summer. Cuptain Jas, Vox, of the Menekaunee, lost off Frank- fort, Lake Michigan, was as good a sailor as ever trod a vessel’s deck. He was raised in Port Haron trom boyhood, and was always a favorite with his associates. He leaves a wife and four children, fortunately provided with a good home, He was a member of the K, O. T. M ,with a policy on his life of $1,000. Captain Mike Johnson was a sailor on the same boat; had been master of boats, off and on, for twenty-five years. He leavesa grown-up family. Mr. Dan Wheeler was a single man; was of very good standing, and a brother in-law of Captain F. I. Merri- map, of this city. Thomas Watters was a young man, sober, steady, and took care of his mother and sisters; a boy whom every- one would like. The others were a Mis. Clause and daughter Minnie, and Billy Com. frey was known by the boys as “hail fellow well met,” and highly esteemed by all. He was the support of a widowed mother. John Davidson, drowned on the Menkaunee, was a brother of James A. Davidson, of this city. , The steamer A. J. Wright makes three trips a week between Port Huron and Port way from the schooner the her back with the current he f ree was so strong that it took about eighty feet of the port rail, bulwarke, rried away the foremast,main- mast, and broke the mizzen topmast off, but they got a good line and soon pulled the pontoon away. It is rumored that she has been sold to parties in Cleveland, who will go to work at onse to take the iron out of her The work of unloading the Hiawatha is being pushed forward as fast as possible. Four electric lights have been placed on Thompson’s dock to enable the men to work nights, “Schooner Sonora, Captain Van Slyck, has been stripped and will lay up. Exten- sive repairs will be put upon her during the winter. ; Schooner L. L. Lamb has gone into win- ter quarters here. Ed. J. Kendall, the marine reporter, now displays cautionary signals from his office, foot of Sarnia street. Ed is bound to make himself useful to vessel men. Towing is first rate, all the first-class tugs are after wrecking jobs, which leaves the small tugs a harvest. RUBENZY, WINTER TOURS VIA BEE LINE. The Bee Line has now on sale to all of the principal winter resorts of the-south, Texas, California and Mexico, round-trip tourist tickets at greatly reduced rates from those in effect last season. ‘Tours to suit your pleasure can be arranged for through any ticket agent of the C.C. C. & I. Ry., 1 & 8. L. Ry., or D.& U. R.R. ‘Tickets are good returning until June 1st, 1887, and permit of many privileges not nsually al- lowed on through tickets. On certain dates each month, during the winter season, spe- cial excursion tickets to San Francisco and Los Angeles, Cal., will be sold at but a slight advance over one fare for the round trip, good returning at pleasure within six months from date of sale, with the addi- tional privilege of longer extension in re- turn limit, if desired. Choice of routes also allowed. Bee Line agents will take pleas- ure in giving full information upon applica- tion. Local sleeper for Detroit leaves Cleveland every night on the Lake Shore limited at 12:25 a. m., arriving at Detroit at $:10 a. m. Car ready to occupy after 9 p. m. For berths call at city ticket office or Union depot. MARITIME LAW. COLLISION—TUGS AND TOWS—NIGHT—FAIL- URE TO STOP—IMPROPER POSITION IN CHANNEL. U. 8S. District Court, Southern District of New York. Brown, J. The libel in this case was filed to recover damages for a collision which took place in the North river about three miles above Hudson on the night of May 20th, 1881, be- tween the libelant’s canal boat E. L. Perry in tow of the J. F, Winslow, and the Buf- falo in tow of the Cengueror. The canal boat Perry was one of three boats in tow of the Winslow upon a hawser about 150 teet long, bound down the river, the Perty being the outer boat on the port side, The Conqueror was proceeding up tle river with a tow of six boats'in three tiers, towed upon a hawser about 500 feet long, the Buffalo being the middle tier on the port side. The night was dark and still; there was no wind, nor were any stars visible; but the weather was not thick. The tide was the first of the ebb, with only slight current setting to the southward. Various circumstances fix the place of col- lision between what is known as Four Mile Point on the west shore of the Hudson and a buoy which is somewhere about 300 or 400 yards to the northward of the light, near the center of the river and at the extreme southern point ofa flat, extending thence northward and known as the Middle Ground. The channel to the east of the Middle Ground is shallow and impracticable. The ordinary course of vessels and tows going up and down the river is between the flats known as the Middle Ground and the westerly shore, where the channel is com- paratively narrow, not exceeding, as I judge from the testimony, 600 or 800 feet. Below the buoy the channel widens to some 1200 feet between that and the Four Mile light, and becomes somewhat narrower again to the southward of the light. Each tug charges upon the other the sole responsibility for the collision on the ground that it did not keep to the right side of the channel, each alleging, however, in its own behalf that it was so far to the right as it was possible to go with safety. In their estimate of distances, the various witnesses on bebalf of each tug in general to sustain their own allegations as to their position. They are, of eourse, utterly ‘irreconcilable; and if there were nothing else but these estimates of distances from shore to guide the court to a conclusion, it would be well nigh impossible to reach any satisfactory re- sult. The chief witnesses on both sides were equally familiar with the locality, and with the ordinary course of navigation in that region, and the evidence does not disclose any reason for ascribing any intentional dis honesty in the testimony to the one side rather than to the other, bi It is clear, nevertheless, that the collision could not have taken place except through some fault in one or both tugs, The chan- nel at the point of collision was 1200 feet! wide; the vight calm; the current slack, and the two tngs had observed each other’s lights when at least half a mile apart. One fact of a definite and tangible charac- ter amid the mass of various and irreconcil- able estimates of distance, is sustained by such direct and positive testimony that it cannot be rejected; namely, that a moment or two prior to the collision the Conqueror | grounded close to the buoy upon the flats in the Middle Ground. ‘This is not only sus- tained by her own witnesses but by another pilot who chanced to be in the pilot house of the Conqueror, who had himself put down the buoy at that point. He testified with great postiveness, when closely pressed upon cross examination, that he felt the contact of the boat as she ran aground, and that she also rubbed along the buoy. ‘Two or three witnesses On the part of the Winslow, it is true, testify that the Conqueror did not run aground; but that she passed straight along upon her course, But it is impossible to give to this testimony, however honest in in- tention, the same weight that belongs to the evidence of those on board the Conqueror, not merely upon the general rule which gives superior credit, unless there be special reasons to the contrary, to the testimony of those on board a vessel as to her own course, motions and position, but’ particularly in this case, because, ina dark and cloudy nigbt, it was impossible for those upon the tow of the Winslow ata distance ot some 600 feet astern of the Conqueror to give any ‘trustworthy evidence on such a point. The answer of the Conqueror also asserted that ‘she was aground at the time of the collision; it was no new point sprung for the first time ‘upon the trial. : _ This one fact established affords a starting problems in the case is rendered compara- tively easy. Placing the Conqueror aground at the buoy at the moment of colli-ion, it follows that the libelant’s boat, the E. L. Perry, when hit by the Buffalo which was in the second tier of the Conqueror’s tow, must have been from 600 to 700 feet to the south- ward of the buoy, and that the Winslow at the same time was from 250 to 300 feet farther below to the southward, All the testimony shows that the Winslow at this | time was very nearly abreast of the Four Mile Light. The Conqueror when froma quarter to half a mile below Four Mile Light had met another large tow coming down the river, and at the same time the Albany night boat supposed to be the St. John also coming down’ the two, the St. John being to the westward, and the Albany tow to the eastwaid. The three were abreast of each other ax the Con- queror was passing the middle of the Albany tow; she was then about 50 feet to the west- ward of latter, and some 200 or 300 feet to the eastward of the St. John. Her pilot testified that she kept that distance from the St. John in order to avoid the disturbing effect upon her tow likely to be produced in the great swell of the steamer in passing. These circumstances would lead to the natural inference that the Conqueror at this time could not have been far from the middle of the channel, The evidence shows that at the time when she was thus passing the St. John and the Albany tow, the lights of the Winslow were first. seen some distance above the buoy, and that the tows then ex- changed signals of one whistle each. From that time the Conqueror ported her helm carrying her somewhat to the right side of the channel until she had passed Four Mile Point, when, in accordance with the uspal custom, she put her helm somewhat to star- board in order to pass up the narrow chan- nel to the westward above the buoy. At Four Mile Point the shore as well as the channel tends somewhat to the westward so that the ordinary course of navigation compels a starboard helm as the up tow rounds this point. She Conqueror was at this time going at the rate/of about five knots, the Winslow about two knots. As the point of collision was about 700 feet below the baoy the Conqueror must have passed the Perry about 400 or 500 feet below the. buoy. All the evidence shows that the Con- queror, as she passed the Perry, went within from 30 to 50 feet ot her; that she was then, and had been for a short time previous, un- der a somewhat starboard helm after get- ting abreast of Four Mile Puint. The evi- dent and necessary effect of a starboard helm upon a tow of 500 feet astern of the Con- queror was to draw the tow not exactly up- on the same curve described by the Con- queror in her path; but somewhat across and inside of that curve; and when the Con- queror passed within 30 or 50 feet of the Perry upon such a starboard wheel it seems obvious to me that a collision was inevitable unless the Conqueror hal immediately stopped, as she could not go to the eastward. Her own witnesses state that there was no light upon the Perry, the port boat of the Winslow’s tow, although they saw the other lights of the barges to the west of her. But the testimony satisfies me that there was such a light upon the highest part of the lumber which formed the cargo of the Perry. If for any reason it was not previously seen, the Conqueror, when she came alongside of the Perry did see her and was within 80 to 50 feet of her, and must, before reaching her bave known the danger of keeping on with tow and pulling it towards the Perry under a starboard wheel. At the time when the pilot of the Conqueror must have seen how near he was to the Perry his own tow was at least 600 or 800 feet astern, and had the Conqueror stopped then, as she might easily have done, the tide being somewhat ebb, without any danger or embarrassment to her tow, [think this collision would have certainly been avoided. For not doing so the Conqueror must therefore be held re- sponsible. The same considerations, however, which show the liability of the Conqueror, also show that the Winslow was farther to the eastward than she ought to have been, and that she did not do what she might and ought to have done to avoid this collision. The fact that the Conqueror grounded close to the buoy, approaching it under a starboard wheel, is conclusive evidence that she was far to the right of the center of the channel between the buoy, and Four Mile Point. And her tow had clearly been in a via similar situation ;-because the evidence shows conclusively that the collision came about| — through the tows being hauled somewhat to | point from which » solution of the other | the westward across the stream, and not | direetly up the river. Itis. impossible, there- fore, if the fact of the grounding of the Con queror at the b vay te true, and the collision rook place by the Corqueror’s tow being hauled somewhat across the river from the eastward, that the Winslow and her tow could have been close to the western side of the channel, as is claimed on her part. The only tangible tact testified to on her part going to show that she with her tow was near the shore, is the evidence that when the Winslow undertcok to turn round and go back for the purpose of picking up the libel- ans boat which had been broken loose from the tow by the collision, she reversed, her propeller, and in backing struck the west shore. Without meaning to question the arcaracy of sthis statement, it does not | furnishdata for any exact determination of The Conqueror with her tow passed between | distance of, the Winslow from the shore at | the time of the collision, still less as to the distance of her tow from the shore. As to the time after the collision when the Wina- law was thus backing, the engineer thinks it was less than halfa minute. The time during which she backed, he says, **may be fifteen seconds, a short time” evidently an estimate merely; and that “she struck as soon as she made half a dozen revolutions back; then she drifted off after that.’? This evidence consists ot estimates as to the time and distance, and very plainly is without that definiteness and certainty which be- longs to the fact of the grounding of the Conqueror at the buoy. The position of the Conqueror, as I have said, could not have been far from the middle ot the river when she bad passed to the eastward of the St. John, a quarter of a mile below the Point, and as the Conqueror and the Winslow at that time signaled and kept each other in view, every pro- bability points to the course of the Con- queror having been that above indicated, namely, at first farther toward the easterly side of the channel, followed by a starboard wheel just after passing Four Mile Point, which is what her witnesses on board testify, The fact also stated by the pilot of the Winslow that ashe came down the narrow channel above the buoy he had the light always on her starboard hand is an indica- tion that he was heading to the eastward of the usual course of steamers in coming duwn that channel, because a course down the middle or west side of the channel would bring the light, until he came near it on his »port bow. pas. " Regarding the witnesses’ estimates of dis- tances in a dark night as wholly unreliable, I think the weight of the circumstantial ‘| evidence shows conclusively that the Wins- low was considerably to the eastward of her proper course in coming round Four Mile Point when the Conqueror and her tow were in plain view immediately below. Her duty was to keep well toward the westerly shore. There was abundant room for her to do so, and no other boats or obstructions were in the way. I must therefore hold her also re- ; sponsible for crowding upon the rightful course of the Conqueror and her tow as they were seen to be approaching the nar- row channel above the buoy. The libelant is, therefore, entitled to a de- cree against both vessels in the usual form, anda reference may be taken to compute the damages if the parties do not agree, with costs. 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