216 F. 572 | E.D. Pa. | 1914
Special findings of facts and conclusions of law as reached in this case are filed herewith. The case turns wholly upon the facts. The legal conclusions are merely formal.
An outline statement of the main facts may be given in short compass. The dredge Delaware is used in the work of the deepening of the channel of the Delaware River and Bay. The steamship Raven plies between the port of Philadelphia and New Orleans. They collided on the night of December 5, 1913, about 9 o’clock p. m. The dredge was steaming up the river and the Raven down. The tide was on the ebb; the conditions of wind and weather quiet. Both vessels were within the limits of the Liston Range. They collided at a point near the eastern edge of the channel about opposite black channel buoy No. 3, below Liston Point, in the state of Delaware. The dredge at the time had her tanks full and was engaged in the
Thus stand the general facts upon which all witnesses are agreed. The controverted facts will appear in such discussion of the case of which there may be need.
It would be easy to take a view of this case upon which the mind could rest satisfied except that it involves convicting the navigators of one vessel or the other of almost unbelievable culpability. Starting with the proposition that the case as presented by the libelant rests upon a finding of the mismanagement of the Raven so gross as to defy credence in the accusation, the proctors for the respondent have built up a theory accounting for what occurred which is most enticing. One criticism to which it is open, however, is that it involves a finding of culpability on the part of the Delaware just as staggering. This criticism is anticipated and met by another theory which accounts for and explains the negligence of the navigators of the dredge. Another criticism to which the respondent’s theories are exposed is that they are largely without evidential support, and where there is testimony to support them in part, the testimony is contradicted and the weight of the whole evdence is aganist the respondent.
The case for the libelant is clear and soon told. The ship channel is 600 feet wide. The range lights give a line up and down mid-channel. The dredge was proceeding in a course to the eastward of this line. The Raven was directly on the range. That the expected course of each vessel was to hold her course or bear to starboard is manifest. The Delaware bore to starboard and the Raven held her course. In passing, each vessel would have had the other on her port bow. The Raven blew her whistle, indicating this. The Delaware answered. The boats should then have passed port to port. The positions of the vessels presented no element of the danger of a collision and suggested none. The space separating the course of each was then about 300 feet. The Raven was following the middle line of the channel and the Delaware was east of this course,
This account of what happened is supported by the testimony of those aboard the dredge, the Gettysburg and her two barges, and is consistent with and corroborated by the position of the vessels at and after the collision. These facts compel a finding in favor of the libelant.
It would be interesting, but give undue length to this opinion, to discuss the theory of the collision advanced by the proctors for the respondent, and by which they account for it by throwing the whole blame upon the Delaware and fully exculpating the Raven. The findings of facts which we have felt obliged to reach dispose of the theory by leaving it without any facts for its support.
A decree in favor of the libelant, with an allowance to it of costs, may be prepared and submitted. We have not found the amount of damage, because we have been relieved of this duty by an arrangement between counsel.