Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/858

THE ISAAO BELL, 843 �pas3 bearings therefrom would bring the scliooner more in the chan^el. The A., another schooner, anchored nearly abreast ot the G. 8. R., but one or two hundred yards nearer to the southerly shore. The steamer N., cotning down the river at 11 p. m., passed about 50 jrardsto the north of the schooner G. 8. R., on which no light was seen, the light of the soliooner A. being vis- ible. The night was cloudy and darlc, but net thick. At 2 a. m. the steamer 1. B., whose usual course is a little to the southerly of the N.'s course, came down the river, having the A. 's light a little on her starboard bow. When near her, the I. B. veered to port to avoid the A. , and in doing so immediately ran upon the schooner G. 8. R., no light being seen upon the latter. No anchor watch was kept upon either schooner. The usual anchor light was set on the G. S. R. on the evening before. �Hdd, upon a cohflibt of testimony as to whether the schooners were in or far eut of the channel, that the schooner G. S. R. was in or 80 near the navi- gable part of the river that she was bound to maintain the usual anchor light ; that she had not donc so, and that the collision was to be solely attributed to that fault on her part ; that the I. B. was not so far out of her rightf ul course • as to make her answerable for the collision, in the absence of a proper light upon the schooner. �Whether the schooner was also bound to keep an anchor watch, or ezhibit a torch-Ught to the approaching steamer, under section 4234, quatre. �In Admiralty. �E. D. McCarthy, for libellant. �Owen (e Gray, for claimant. �Brown, D. J. This libel was filed by the owner of the schooner George S. Repplier, to recover damages caused by the steamer Isaac Bell running into her as she lay at anchor in the James river, about 2 o'clock in the morning of August 18, 1879. The place of the col- lision was several miles above Newport News, nearly abreast of the White Shoal light. The river at this point is from three to four miles wide, running in a south-easterly course. The White Shoal is a narrow bank, about a mile in length, running in the same course with the river, and about midway from shore to shore. The White Shoal light is situated upon its southerly edge. The main channel runs along the southerly side of this shoal, and is nearly half a mile in breadth, with a depth of water varying from 26 to 16 feet. The deeper portion is nearer to the White Shoal. On the southerly side of this channel the water becomes gradually shallower, and at a dis- tance of half a mile abreast of the light is 15 feet in depth, and thence shoals gradually to the southerly shore, about a mile and a quarter further distant. These shoals furnish a favorite anchorage ground for light-draught vessels. �At about 6 o'clock in the evening of August 17th, the George S. Kepplier, bound from Eichmond to Philadelphia with a cargo of paving stones, came to anchor at a point a little below.the light, and ��� �