Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/766

75e FBDBBAIi EEPOBTEB. �seeing the green light hails of warning were shouted by those on the schooner; that the schooner made no effort to change her course until the steamer was in the act of striking her, when her master ordered her helm hard a-port to ease the blow, but before the order could be executed the steamer struck her port aide, nearly amidship, and she sank in a few minutes. �The case for the steamer, as stated in the answer, is that she was on a course N. by E., her speed six and one-half miles an hour, in charge of a pilot, when the lookout reported a white light a point or a point and a half off the steamer's starboard bow, apparently borne by a vessel at anchor; that the pilot, upon looking at the light for a short time with a glass, discovered that it was on a vessel under way, showing no side light, and that she was changing her course and going across the steamer's bow; that thereupon he signalled to reverse the engines full speed astern, and ordered the wheel hard a-port ; that at the moment of collision, which occurred very shortly afterwards, the steamer's headway was almost checked, aud her bow was going off to, the starboard or eastward. �The allegations of the libel and of the answer are contradictory in almost every material point, and the testimony adduced in support of each utterly irreooncilable. I have found the attempt to discover how the collision was brought about attended with more than the usual embarrassment. At the conclusion of the first hearing I was strongly inclined to take the same view of the case as at present, but a great anxiety lest by overlooking some fact, or failing properly to estimate some portion of the testimony, I might be doing injustice to men v^ho have already been great sufferers by this disaster, caused me to hesitate. After a second hearing I find my first impressions strengthened, and I am able to adhere to them with increased confi- dence since the learned circuit judge, with his larger experience in dealing with such cases, bas independently arrived at the same de- termination. �Why it is that in case of direct conflict the statements of some witnesses eonvince the mind, and the statements of others fail to du so, is of ten difficult of explanation, and in this case I shall be able to do hardly more than indicate some of the considerations which have had influence in bringing us to the conclusions I am now to an- nounce. �It is first to be noticed that the case stated in the libel is highly improbable. It is alleged that the red light of the steamer was seeu ��� �