73 F. 875 | 2d Cir. | 1896
It is hardly necessary to add anything to the discussion of the case by the district judge. Upon such facts in the case as are either conceded, or established beyond question by the proof, and assuming all the disputed facts to be as the Aller contends they were, the decision of the district court should be affirmed. No one pretends that the Soule was in any fault. She had arrived from Hong Kong with an East India cargo on April 2, 1893, and anchored with 45 fathoms of chain at a point about 350 or 400 yards to the southeast of the Statue of Liberty. This point
The Aller left her pier in Hoboken about 9 o’clock, and, when somewhere between pier 8 and the Battery, got sight of the America and the Soule on her starboard bow, and a mile or more away. Those in charge of the navigation of the Aller supposed the tug and tow were under way, and bound for the East river. Exactly what signals were given by the Aller is in dispute, but it is conceded that her navigators made up their minds to run to the westward of the' tug and tow, changed her course, to carry out this maneuver, and failed to accomplish it safely, because the America and her tow did not move on in the direction of the East river, as those on the Aller supposed they would. Under a hard a-port wheel, the Aller left the channel, and ran over the anchorage ground, till she. struck the Soule on the starboard bow, cutting into the bark from six to ten feet. The Soule, being concededly free from fault, is entitled to recover against one or other or both of the steam vessels.
No fault on the part of the tug is shown. She had a right to come on the anchorage ground; to take up her tow, and to assist the latter by turning her head in the proper direction, and by hold
The decree of the district court is affirmed, with interest and costs.