Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/589

57e FEDERAL REPORTER. �was, as he says, to keep these lights between the starboard forerig- ging and the foremaat. His vessel was light, small, only 45 feet long over all, sailing in a stiff breeze, three points free, veered easily, and required constant minding of the helm; and the distance from the helm to the foremast was not great. That the captain was not very attentive is manifest from his not observing the lights of the May- flower or Vesper, which had been in view for some time; and a sim- ilar inattention to his bearings would easily allow the schooner to luff, as she would naturally do, sufSoiently to bring her red light momentarily into view; and without such luESing or a change of course he would not have reaohed the place of collision. �But had the red light been continuously hidden by the jib, as claimed, that would not improve the libellant's case. The Vesper can only be charged for some fault of her own. Her duty to keep out of the way of the schooner was conditioned upon her having notice of the situation and course of the John Jay by proper, visible lights. The rules of navigation require that these lights shall be "so constructed as to show a uniform and unbroken light over an arc of the horizon of 10 points of the compass, and so fixed as to throw the light from right ahead to two points abaft the beam," on either side. Eules 8 and 8, Eev. St. § 4233. If either light is so obscured that a steamer is mjslead and deceived as to the course of the sailing-vessel, and a collision ensues in consequence, it is manifestly no fault of the steamer; and if the sailing-vessel suffer damage, it must be set down to her own fault or misfortune, as the case may be. �In the case of Hoben v. The Westover, 2 Fed. Eep. 91, to which, I have been referred, the sailing-vessel was pitching and plunging in a tempestuous sea, groducing iluctuations of her lights ; and it was held the duty of the steamer observing this to have stopped in time to ascertain her course and avoid her. The point here is not merely the momentary changes of lights in a rough sea, but the continuous obscuration of one of them in comparatively smooth water, so as to mislead the steamer; and to this the case of The Westover bas no application. In this case the captain of the Vesper, on seeing these fluctuations, which were but about a minute before the collision, blew two whistles, and almost immediately — in a few seconds, at least — rang four bells, to stop and reverse, and put his helm more to star- board to keep ofi still further. This was all he could do, so that even if the facts justified the theory of the libellant's counsel in regard to the obscuration of the red light by the jib, I should be obliged to hold the Vesper not in fault. ��� �