Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/932

92e PEDERAIi BEPOBTEB. �It is admitted in the answer that the steamer was about 600 feet from her wharf in the harbor of Crisfield ; that it was known to those navigating her that it was the constant prac- tice of the Eoach and other vessels of her class to auchor in that part of the channel; but it is alleged that she was pro- ceeding cautiously and at a slow rate of speed. �Let us see how the testimony supports this allegation as ta the rate of speed. The captain of the steamer says that when they saw the masts of the Eoach, about 75 feet off, the steamer was going the usual speed which she maintains while coming up the river ; that is to say, from six to seveu miles an hour. Out on the bay, he says, they try to make 10 miles an hour. The engineer says that on the bay they were mak- ing 32 revolutions of the wheel a minute, and on the river, 28 revolutions, and that at the time he got the signal to reverse, just before the collision, they had not slowed from the speed they had been makiug on the river, and were going, he thinks, six and a half miles an hour. The Helen is a side-wheel steamer, quiekly stopped, and, even at her then rate of speed, was bo far checked before striking the Roach that the direct effect of the blow was not great. �I am satisfied that if she had been proceeding at a slower speed the damage must have been very trifling. In my judg- ment, under ail the circumstances and considering the ob- structions they knew she was likely to encounter, she was maintaining too great a speed. The night was very dark. She was steering for her wharf. They knew that the harbor is very contracted, and that small vessels would very likely be in her track, and yet she had not slowed from the speed she had maintained the whole length of the river. The Cor- sica, 9 Wall. 634. In the liarbor of Baltimore an ovdinance provides that no steamboat of 150 tons and upwards shall proceed at a greater epeed than 10 revolutions of her wheel per minute, which serves to indicate the rate of speed which experience bas shown to be safe in a narrow harbor in the day-time. �It results, from these considerations, that both vessels were in fault, and that the damages must be equally divided. ��� �