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THE MARINE RECORD. MARINE LAW. COLLISION CASE. U. S. District Court, Southern District N. Y. William H. Beard, et. al., ve. the steam- ship Bermuda, ete. W. R. Beebe and W. W. Goodrich tor li- bellant. Butler, Stillman and Hubbard for claimant. Brown, J. ‘This action was brought to recover dam- ages to the steamtug Edith Beard which was sunk through a collision with the Bermuda on the 10th of September, 1880, at a point between Ellis Island and Castle William, Ine tug bad left the Pavonia Ferry with two large ballast logs in tow, lashed upon her port side, and described as 80 ton logs, bound for Merchants’ Stores, Brooklyn. The Bermuda is a large steanship which had lefs her wharf at 4 p. m., and was proceeding down the middle of the Hudson river out to sea, and was somewhat to the eastward and astern of the tug. The course of the tug was about two points farther to the east- ward than the course of the steamship. Ac- cording to the evidence of the latter when they were about two lengths off, two whis- tles were given to which no answer was made by thetug. ‘The wheel of the steamer was starboarded, but not in time to avoid the tug which was struck upon her port quarter and sunk immediately. As the courses of the two vessels were converging by an angle of about two points, the situation was what is described as the fifth situation; and as the tug was upon the starboard side of the Bermuda, it was the duty of the latter under Rule 19 to keep out of the way, and the duty of the tug by Rule 23 to keep her course. - ‘The tug was seen from the Bermuda when half a mile distant, and there was nothing to prevent the latter from keeping out of the way by going on either side of the tug. By Rule XI of the Supervising Inspectors, p. 37, (fifth situation) the Bermuda was re- quired to sound one whistle and pass to the right or.astern of the tug.’ (‘The Grand Re- public Fed. Rep.—) ‘The tug, 1 am satisfied, did not change her course, nor embarrass the Bermuda in any way ; und the Bermuda is therefore necessa- rily chargeable with fault in not having avoided the tug as the burden of doing 80 lay aipon her. ‘The tug was at the time in charge of her captain, who acted as pilot, and there was no other lookout either forward or aft. No whistles from the Bermuda were heard; nor were those on board aware even that the Bermuda was approaching until she was close upon them; and the captain seeing the Bermuda had hardly time to escape from the pilot house and went down with the vessel. ‘here was plainly gross negligence on the tug in regard to keeping any proper oe Jookout for other vessels; and upon this j round the tug must have been held jointly Jiable far the loss, were I not satistied from the evidence that there was nothing which the tug ought to have done, or could prop- erly have done, to avoid the collision, had a lookout been properly kept and the motions of the Bermuda promptly reported. If the course of the of the Bermuda had been closely watched from the first, the tng would still have been bound to keep her course precisely as she did. She was bound to keep her course and not to thwart the measures which the Bermuda might take, and was bound to take, to avoid her by changing < , either to the right or left. As the Bermuda was approaching the .ug’s port quarter at an angle of only about two points, it was impossible for the tug to tell whether the steamer would pass to the right or left. The first intimation was that given by he: two whistler, assuming that they were given, as testified to by those on board the Bermuda; but these whistles were not given until about ten seconde, as it is estimated, before the collision, or at one or two lengths distance. Until this indication of the intention of the Bermuda as to which course she intended to take in passing the tug, the latter could not anticipate on which side she would go, and would have no right to changé her course lest that should embarrass the steamship in performing her duty to avoid her. When these whistles were given the only thing the tug could have done was to stop, or to port; and L am satisfied that the collision was then so imminent that neither stopping nor port- ing would have made any difference, and that it was then impossible tor the tug by any change of her own to have escaped, The heavy logs lashed to her sides necessarily prevented any rapid manoeuvering. ‘Though the want of a proper lookout was reprehen- sible, I am satisfied that in this case it in no way contributed to the collision, ‘he tug was moving at about half the rate of the Bermuda. Had she been unembar- rassed by anything lashed to her side she undoubtedly could have been quickly han- died and might have got outjof the way, It is probable that those on board the Bermu- da did not see the heavy logs which embai- rassed her motions until they had nearly reached her, and that they supposed she would therefore get out of the way at the {Jt last moment by a rapid mancuver which small tugs are easily able to make, and that there was no need of observing the strict rules of navigation. As the tug was, how- ever, encumbered by the} logs in tow so ag to be almost as unwieldy as the steamer her. self, the latter must bear the consequences of her mistake in assuthing that the rules might be neglected with impunity. Jecree for libellant with costs, MODERN STEAMERS. The Nautical Magazine remarks that there is one thing that we know, or should have learned from the vast experience of: the last ten or twenty years—an experience, perhaps, as gloomy and unsatisfactory as it has been rash—that the inajority of cargo steamers, as at present constructed and sent to sea, have already—long since—reached the limit of safety in loading; if, indeed, many of them have not got much beyond it. If this be not 80, how are we to account for the great num- ber of such vessels which annually disap- pear? There is, surely, unmistakable evi- dence to prove that something is wrong some- where; for many of them are comparatively new ships. After two ene centuries of ex- perience of all kinds of ships, and over all seas, a vanished school of able and sagacious seamen, laid it down that a good ship, fairly loaded and ably commanded, will live in any storm—excepting, perhaps, cyclones and hurricanes, and the’ accidents which they engender; she positively cannot sink, but is as certain to ride over those great rolling mountains of seething water as a well-built church is of standing on its foundation. It isn great mistake to suppose, as some ship- builders really do, that because a ship is big no heavy seas. will run.on board; in conse- quence of this fallacy, they take all manner of liberties in designs and constructions, It ‘ts difficult to believe there are such opinions in such quarters, yet it isso, notwithstand- ing. ‘There is, doubtless, less science im- ported into shipbuilding now than in tormer times, when iron for such work was a nov- elty, and when the worthy blacksmith, thongh occupying an indisputable position, played only second fiddle in the symphony; but the merest riveter should understand that the long, low steamers, which are now ‘turned out of our building yards, are the wettest and, in too many cases, the most dangerous ships which ever put to sea. “A great ocean wave, however high or fast it may run, will lift up bodily, any small ship or boat, but not so some 400-footer; and, as a matter of course, it it cannot lift, must run over some part of her. Allowing such a wave to run at thirty-five miles an hour, and a great part of its crest, say twenty-five tons of water, to overwhelm her decks, we have at once a force equal to the charge of a locomotive against everything in the shape of an obstruction to its ccurse. Yet it is common to see such ships putting to sea with all kinds of trumpery and feeble fit- tings—such as obtained in high sided ships of fifty years back--feeble, it should be said, in relation to the amount of freeboard or bad weather to be encountered, and afterwards doleful accounts in the newspapers about “terrific weather and fearful damage.’ A MIDSHIPMITE, From the London Telegraph. > Prince George has joined the Canada as a midshipman. Apparently but little distinc. tion will be made between him and his fel- low-mids, if others there are. He will dine in the gun room mess, and he will be fur- nished with special cabin accommodation, and he has been placed under the personal .cuarge of Captain Durant. No. doubt he will also share in his shipmates’ duties; and to much, 1f not all, that a naval midshipman is expected to do at sea we may assume that his royal highness will cheerfully put his hand. ‘The duties, to be sure, are not now very arduous; and the midshipman of our period has good reason to congratulate him- self that he belongs to the present time. Old naval officers must often smile when they contrast the spruce young gentlemen in white trousers and gilt buttone, balancing themselves on the tall bridges, binocular glass in hand, with the denizons of the cockpit in their day, with the lads who had to learn seamanship in ten-gun brigs and the arte of war from enemies whom it nzed- ed such men as Nelson, Cochrane, and Saumarez tocrush. A happier marine ep- och has come for the middy ; with his cocked hat and dirk he has put away a very large world of discomforts, hard-usage, and fierce fighting. A picture of what he was about the middle ot the last century has been be- queathed by Falconer, the poet of “I'he Shipwreck.’’ It is only a little less dismal than Smollett’s account of .the life of a sur- geon’s mute aboard a British man-of-war. “Deep in the fabric’? he says, “where Britannia boasts o’er seas to waft her thun- der, and her hosts, a cavern lies; and hard by this cavern—in other words the cockpit —dwells the midshipman. He represented asa ‘cockpit beau, though Japan to him ‘her varnish’d joy denies,’ nor bloom for him the sweets of eastern skies.’’? ‘here is no soft vouch for:him to recline on, no tall mirror before which toshave ; the dandy must make the best that he can of himself with a “pig- my glass, cracked o’er and o’er.” Appar- enuy the midshipman was a bit of a cook in Falconer’s days for the poet talks of the youth varying his stndy of logarithms by an- alyzing the tormation of lobscouse and mak- ing puddings. ‘At onre the sage, the hero, he wields the sword, the saucepan, and the book.’”? Yet he appears to have been a per- son not destitute of intelligence, for we read ot him Anittating Garrick and Shuter, warming his breast by retlecting vpon Ca- to’s virtues, and then charming fancy with thoughts of gay Lothario. “Cleone’s grief his tragic feelings wake; with Richard’s pangs th’ orlopian caverns shade; no more the mess for other foys repine, when per= IMPROVEMEN'I'S IN LIGHTHOUSES, Ina peper recently read before the Society of Engineers by « C, Anderson, Leeds, England, it, is suggested that an improve- ment on the present mode of building light- houses may be made by constructing them in the form of a hollow cylinder of riveted ironwork. The cylinder sliould consist of two sections of suitable length, that which is to be the upper one to contain all necessary fittings and appliances of an ordinary light- house, and the remuining section to be ballasted so as to sink below the: water line to counteract the action of wind and waves on the exposed part. ‘'he middle portion of the cylinder should be packed with cork. to prevent the whole from sinking. ‘he cylinder would be built complete on suitable- ways, launched and towed to its station, and. then securely anchored by steel ropes. By- admitting water into the ballasted section: that end would sink and the other would ride upright and easily in the water, as does- a partly-filled bottle. ‘There is no apparent. reason for supposing such a lighthouse would: not'be safe, as eusily managed, and in all ways as useful as are the more expensive lighthouses now in use, where the water is deep enough to admit of submerging so much ofacylinder. An improvement might, perhaps, .be made by making a light but strong, framework to take the place of the- upper part of the cylinder proposed, and by substituting electric’ lights for those in ordinary use in lighthouses. Such a tower- would offer very little resistance to wind or- wave, would require a smaller sunken cy]l- inder to keep it steadily erect, and it may be- assumed would éost less than.a structure of” riveted iron forming a long chamber or series: of chambers. ‘There are probably no in-- surmountable difficulties to prevent. the suc- ceasful use of electric light in beacons or lighthouses, even where they must be pluced far from habitable land. On the contrary, several advantages present themselves... ‘Tie tedious and trying isolation ot human beings in lighthouses would not be necessary; the light might be.made far more brilliant and penetrating than those now in use for that purpose; by suitable-arrangement of clock-. work flashes of any desired duration or order could be easily made, and the light could be-. vasily used by a key under the hand: of an. operator on the shore to telegraph informa- tion to vessels. By meaus of an understood code of signals warning of approaching -danger might be flashed far over the waters by the signal service and advice as to the course to take to secure safety be given. ‘l'o those accustomed to maritime aflairs ways. many in which the electric light might be made useful in conveying information to ves-. soup entering shows ’tis time to dine.” However, the poet begs his greaders not to meanly of this humble seat, “whence sprung the British fleet;” for the spot 80 low is sa- cred, seeing that it “formed to martial acts a Hawke, a Howe!” It is not in poetry, however, that one must seek for a portrait of the midshipman of the past. Dr. Johnson, indeed, deals with him etymologically, and without much labor, derives the word from mid, ship, and man. ‘This derivation presumes the middy always to live and labor amidships, but Dr. Johnson’s conclusion is hardly for- tified by the authority he quotes, who says that midshipmen are officers aboard a ship whose station is divided between the quar- terdeck and the poop. ‘Their business ap- parenuy was to mind the braces, to look out, and to repent the orders given by the cap- tain and other officers. ‘“Ihey also assist on all occasiong, both in sailing the ship and in storing and rummaging the held.”? They probably played their part of rumaging to perfection when there was anything eatable or drinkable to be come at by se doing. Yet neither the. poet nor the lexicographer shows us the midshipman as he was, For his likeness, exaggerated, no doubt, but an unmistakeable portrait nevertheless, we must turn to Marryat, to Michael Scott, to James Hannny, to Howard, the author of “Rattlin the Reefer,’’ and to other nautical novelists now forgotten, though read with applause in their day. There we fihd the “fool of the family’? duly turned over to the care of the first lieutenant, who receives his charge with disgust and many muttered asseverations respecting the speedy decay of the service. He isa bright little fellow in his cocked hat ane dirk, a sucking Nelson; well assured of covering himself with im- perishable renown whenever the proud Spaniard or old Wooden Shoes shall have the courage to neave.into.view. ‘The stories he tells to his pretty sisters and cofsins when he comes home are quite thrilling; they relate largely to mermaids and the rach ing Dutchman. But, entertaining as’ he is, there is a general. sense of relief when the admiralty order comes down to the quiet par- sonage for him to join the crack frigate. which is to do terrible execution among the enemy’s ships before we hear the end of her. It isin the fiction of fifty and sixty years ago that we find him in the maintop, with his hat gone overboard, and his hair stream- ing out like the Welsh bard in Gray’s poem ; singing strange songs over cans of grog in the stifling quarters where he slings his hammock ; ptiying the bumboat ladies ; ‘‘with the foretop sail ;”’ sitting on the booms listen- ing to long-winded yarns from old salts who fought in naval engagements which took place when the -middy’s father was in petticoats; munching wormy bread, and smuggling himself under the stern sheets of the pinnace that™ has been ordered away on a cutting-out expedition.. To this day he is faithfully believed in; and the little smirk ing rogue, precociously ogling the lasses, tricking the people who sell fruits and cheese and trinkets, causing disturbances at theaters, and sterping on board with his hat full of tarte, is accepted as a reality by a generation who have even sent Mr. Pick- wick to join the classic gathering of ‘T'ruili- bers, Trunnions, and Grandisons. Yet in verity he is not less out of date. He is now a sober, ardent, educated. young gentleman, quite in harmony with the change that has taken place in the royal navy since Marryat was writing the lives of “Peter Simple’ and ‘‘Midshipman Easy,’’ and even in his occasional “frisks,” to use the Johnsonian term, dignified as should become the mem- ber ofa fraternity of youths who number in their ranke a prince of the royal blood, and will some day command iron-clads and be admirals of the “Red, White and Blue. time of war, will present themselves. THE NEW CRUISERS. From the Inter Ocean. To the disgust of the rest of the ship- builders, ‘Uncle’? John Roach walked off with the entire bundle in the matter of the cruisers; Cramps seemed to be worst cut. up, Charley declaring that the Chicago could. uot be honestly built for the money bid by Roach, which was only $889,000, when the estimates by the Advisory Board was $1,248,- 000. Cramps’ bid of $1,080,000 doth brothers declared was as low as the ‘work could be done and leave a small profit. heir bid was lower than any other except Roach’s. With the letting of the contracts the season. scandalous reports open. It is rumored that one cause of the dissatisfaction is the violation of understanding by the terms of which the work was to be divided around ata fair profit. The story goes that either of the leading contractors was to bid very near the estimates, which are the. limit ai- lowed by the department, and that but minor differences were to be made. Just variatic m enough was to be observed to distribute the work and to make it agreeable to Roach. He was to be allowed to walk off with the big cruiser, while Cramps and Harlin & Hollingsworth were each to have one of the sister ships, the Boston and Atlanta. In order to give popularity to the scheme to re- habilitute the navy in the West they wanted the Dolphin, the dispatch boat, to go to the Mississippi Valley If it is true there was such understanding Roach went back on it. Whether there was an agreement. of this sort or not will probably never be known now, and if there was any to just what ex- tent it took definite shape is another con- undrum. However, Roach has quietly pocketed the entire appropriation of $2,155,- 000. Pusey & Jones were out of the deal at any rate, having declined to bid. It was asserted in some quarter that Roach, having his own rolling mills with the plant to make his own steel, instead of having to buy it,. accounted for the bid. Cramp, however, anys there is nothing in this, for he can go- to the leading steel-works of the country to-day and buy the material as cheap us Roach can make it. If this be true, it is difficult to see how this cuts any figure in the matter, and the statement that Roach, would build the ship at cost of the profit in. the material has no weight. INSPECTORS INSTRUCTED: From the Chicago Inter Ocean. ’ Supervising Inspector General Dumont has. prepared a circular, which has been sent out by the secretary as follows: ‘It is deemed advisable that the local and assist- ant inspector in your district notify the masters of all excursion steamers that hence- forth they will be required to keep a record of passengers on each trip. Inspectors will demand copies of such records at least once a week and place them on their official filer. The local inspectors are directed to furnish the bureau at Washington weekly with the names of all steamers supplied with permits during the week, the number of passengers allowed on their regular certificates, the ad- ditional number allowed on their excursion permite, and the route for which the ex- cursion permits is granted. Section 4,465 of the Revised Statutes sets forth that itshall not be lawful to take on board of any steamer a greater number of passengers than is stated in the certificate of inspection, and for every violation of this provision the master or owner shall be liable to any suing for the same to torfeit the amount of passage money and $10 for each passage beyond the number allowed.’ ”” —— The outfit of the Life Saving Station at Evanston has been increased by the addition of a good boat to be ueed by the night watch. The propeller Jarvia Lord was aground at the upper end of Walpole Island Thurs- day. aad was released by the tug Michigan, The books of the Bureau of Navigation show a saving of $37,700 in pilotage for one year, in consequence of the officers being compelled to pilot their own vessels, It ap- pears that the officers know their. business. better than they thought they did, sels off the coast,-especially, perhaps, in the.