Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/255

MEEOHANTS STEAM-SHIP 00. V. SOHOONBB S. 0. TBTON. 341 �when both he and the mate testify that they observed the schooner go off to the westward, and he then said to the mate there would be a collision. He says he was near enough to hear the order given on the schooner, "Hard down ! Hard down ! " repeated twiee, and immediately afterwards he heard the crash of the collision. �Both master and mate testify that for some time prior to the collision they had seen only the red light of the steamer, and such was their neamess to the schooner that they under- take to say that the schooner eould not possibly have seen the steamer's green light. They testify that for a little while be- fore the collision the schooner bore off to the westward, and that without that change in her course she would have gone two or three hundred yards clear to the eastward of the steamer. Some of this testimony consists of mere deductions and inf erences of the witnesses, and is to be received with great caution ; but in part it is a statement of facts which must be accepted as true, and the inferences are mostly such as, I think, necessarily resuit from the facts. �It must be accepted as a fact that the master and mate of the Patterson & Bash first saw both of the lights of the steamer, and then to them her green light disappeared and they saw only her red light, and continued to see only the red light up to the time of the collision. This agrees exactly with the changes in the steamer's course testified to by those �on board of her. �Next, it must be admitted that the Patterson & Bash was close to the schooner; the master of the schooner says about 150 yards off, and the master and mate of the Patterson & Bash say never over a quarter of a mile off. From the testi- mony of the master and mate of the Patterson & Bash it appears that they kept the schooner nearly in a line between their boat and the steamer, so that I am brought to the con- clusion that the lights of the steamer must haye appeared to those on the schooner almost identically as they did to those on the Patterson & Bash. The proximity of the Patterson & Bash to the schooner at the time of the collision is confirmed �v.4,no.3— 16 ����