Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/577

THE SANDRINGHAM. 565 �second mate of the ship testified, that 1,000 baies were taken from the lower hold. It is true that something less than 50 baies were taken from the hold for the purpoae of making room for a pump that was intended to be put in there by the wreckera ; but some of these baies were put back, and only the rest sent off the ship. The cause of the listing of the ship on the night of the lOth, from the starboard to the port side, was not the removal of 1,000 baies of cotton from the hold to the deck, as the second mate testified, but was the change of the carrent, which then eut the sand from under the port bilge of the ship, instead of the starboard bilge, as it had previously done. The ship was first got out from her original position on the llth, when she was moved about 30 feet. On the 12th she was moved 10 feet, and on the morning of the 13th, 50 feet.* It bas already been stated that this was done by heaving on the cable with the ship's winches, worked by the ship's engines, engineer, and flremen, under the direction of Capt. Nelson. About 8 p. m. on the 13th the ship was finally got afloat, and was pulled out into deep water beyond the breakers by a tow from the steamer B. & J. Baker, aided by her own engines, which had been fired up. Her tow Une was then cast off, and she steamed into Norfolk harbor under the command of Capt. Stoddard, arriving there about midnight. �It was fortunate that she was got afloat just when she was, for she thereby escaped by half an hour a heavy wind and swell from north- eastwardly that then set in; that partioular swell lasting several days after the wind had sunk to four miles an hour. �In the saving of the Sandringham and her cargo there was no lack at any stage of the undertaking of men or vessels or material in any partioular, and the enterprise was thoroughly sucoessful; the ship having been brought safely into port so little injured that she soon afterwards steamed off to Baltimore for repairs, and not a baie of cotton having been lost. �So unusual and unexampled was the success of this enterprise that it naturally suggests the question whether the fortunate resuit was owing to the skill of the men in charge, or to the mildness of the weather, the moderation of the sea, and the absence of risk and dan- ger in the wrecking operations. �*ihese figures are lakeii from the log-book, which is not evidence against the libellant. I suppose they are a slip of the pen, and that yards or fathoma were intended. Libellant's witnesses make the distances greater than if the log-book meant feet. ��� �