31 F. 164 | S.D. Ga. | 1887
On the twenty-third day of March, 1886, a small sloop with a batteau bottom might have been seen beating her way up the Savannah river. It was March, and its conventional wind was blowing a pitiless gale from the northwestward, and the tide was pouring its tur
The owner of the latter brings his libel to recover damages for iier destruction. Undoubtedly, the crews of both the Pleasant Day and of the Niobe were guilty of negligence. It was in broad day; the Niobe had passed up. the river in full view of the berth where the Pleasant Day was moored. It was the duty of the Niche to see that the berth was clear. There in full view lay the sloop, apparently with no one on hoard. She was very perceptible. She was thirty feet in length; eight tons. The Niobo’s people liad no right to presume that she could he, or would he, instantly removed; they knew the consequence of a collision, and yet they cast off the hawser from the leading tug with the full knowledge
■ What is the value of the Pleasant Day is a question difficult of determination. Her disjecta membra were rescued from beneath the wave, but the Niobe had left her with a shattered constitution. Opinions as to her value vary pretty much anywhere from five hundred to fifty dollars, and one witness thought she would be dear at any price. The truth is, the Pleasant Day was not a very valuable craft. She had been moored for quite a while in the Bilbo canal, an artery which performs the same functions for the city of Savannah that the Cloaca Maxima did for ancient Rome, and was as a consequence not so pleasant as her name imported. All the sails and rigging were saved. On the whole I award $150 to Wilson, the owner of the Pleasant Day, and decree that he pay half the costs.