21 N.Y.S. 277 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1892
The plaintiff was the owner of the steamer Caroline Miller. The defendants chartered the vessel to carry lumber for them from Port Royal,’S. C., to New York. The defendants agreed that there should be 16 feet of water at the wharf. On the 12th of April, 1887, the vessel arrived with a cargo of lumber at the port of New York, and was ordered by the defendants to discharge the same at their yard in Hunter Point. The plaintiff had made with the vessel two preceding trips, and delivered at the same place the cargo, without accident. On this occasion the vessel was loaded so as to draw a little over 15 feet of water. The tide was about half ebb, and in running into the dock the vessel struck on a ledge of rocks at the bottom of the East river, some 70 feet outside of and in front of the defendants’ bulkhead. The depth of water was sufficient to float the vessel at the dock, and there was sufficient depth of water to approach the same if the vessel had approached the dock either from the north or south, inside of the rocks. On the occasion in question the vessel ran in bow on, with an ebb tide, and the stern of the steamer was carried by the tide so that she struck on the rocks, and was injured. The vessel was 190 feet long. The rocks at low tide are 12 or 13 feet below the surface, and, as the tide falls about 5 feet, at the time of the collision there was not water enough to float the vessel. The complaint avers that the