118 F. 81 | S.D.N.Y. | 1902
This is an action brought by the owner of the barge David Wallace to recover damages caused to the barge by a collision in the East River, with a car float in tow on the starboard side of the steamtug Transfer No. 14, on the 25th day of March, 1901. The barge was in tow on a hawser, of about 45 or 50 fathoms in length, of the steamtug Teaser, and bound from Newport, Rhode Island, to Hoboken, New Jersey, through the channel between Black-wells Island and New York. The Transfer No. 14.. with a float on each side, was proceeding through the channel from Jersey City to Harlem.' The collision happened about 5 o’clock in the morning. It was before dawn, while the vessels’ lights were burning and the navigation governed thereby. The tide was ebb and the weather clear.
The barge alleges that the Teaser, the barge following, was proceeding through about the center of the channel, and upon seeing No. 14
The Teaser alleges that the lights of Ño. 14 were seen about a mile away and the tugs were then proceeding about head and head; that she blew a signal of one whistle and ported her helm, to which Ño. 14 made no reply; that she repeated this signal twice and gave a signal of four short blasts and a long blast, which signals she repeated, to none of which did No. 14 make any reply, nor did No. 14 check her headway but came on first striking the Teaser with her port car float and then the barge with the same; that the place of collision was very near the New York shore. The Teaser adopts the charges of fault against No. 14 alleged by the barge.
Transfer No. 14 alleges that she was pursuing a course about 300 feet off the New York shore and when she reached a point off 61 st Street,.the Teaser’s side lights and the lights of the barge were seen; that the Teaser gave a signal which was so faint that the master of No. 14 was unable to make out whether it was a signal of one or two whistles and he immediately blew a signal of one whistle to indicate his intention to pass the Teaser to port; that the Teaser did not reply to No. 14’s signal but kept on without changing her course, and the barge instead of following her, sheered to port across the course of No. 14; that the Teaser passed down the river on the port side of No. 14 while the barge sheered across No. 14’s bows and came in collision with the starboard bow of the float and then under the influence of the sheer continued across the river and went ashore on Blackwells Island. The No. 14 charges fault against the Teaser in that she did not keep to the starboard side of the channel pursuant to the provisions of Article 25, did not have a proper lookout, did not have her side lights brightly burning, did not stop and back in time to avoid collision, did not blow the alarm whistles nor other signals in time and did not keep her tow clear of No. 14. No. 14 also charges- fault against the barge in that she failed to follow the Teaser but sheered out of her course, bringing about the collision.
There is no material conflict in the testimony as to the tugs having been substantially in a head and head position to each other for some time as they approached and it was the duty of each to port her helm and pass the other on the port side. The distance between Black-wells Island and the New York shore varies from 750 to 900 feet, and allowing a reasonable margin for navigation away from the shores there is an average navigable channel in the vicinity of the collision, somewhere in the neighborhood of 61st Street, of about 600 feet. Of this space, No. 14, with her floats, occupied about 100 feet. The Teaser was about 25 feet wide and the barge about 36 feet wide.
The ascertainment of the part of the channel in which the collision
No. 14 was primarily in fault for the collision but a serious question remains whether the Teaser was not also in fault. She fulfilled her duty with respect to. seeing No. 14 in time, in porting, in going to the right of the channel, and as to her lights and signals, but no claim is made on her part that she did anything to reduce her headway until in the immediate vicinity of No. 14, when she stopped and backed. It appears that she was going under one bell, which gave her the speed of about six miles an hour mentioned. Probably two miles of the speed was owing to the effect of the favorable tide, so that she was going through the water at the rate of about four miles. Her claim is that she could not stop and back sooner because the barge would have shot into her and there would have been danger of fouling the hawser in her propeller but it does not satisfactorily appear that she could not have, at least, considerably reduced her speed without subjecting herself to. either danger and thus given No. 14 more time to perform her duty. Those navigating her saw that No. 14
If it be assumed, as claimed by the barge, that she was following the Teaser until the latter sheered towards New York, it would seem that the barge must have then sheered to the port across the bow of No. 14’s starboard float because otherwise the collision between the starboard stem of the barge and the starboard corner of the float, which the testimony establishes, could not have taken place. It is ¡not satisfactorily shown what the cause of such sheer was. The witnesses on the barge state that she attempted to follow the tug to the starboard when the tug changed in that direction in the immediate vicinity of No. 14 but that she could not steer so quickly as the tug and had not time to turn much, if any. It is suggested that the hard-a-porting of the tug threw her stern and her end of the hawser to the port, giving the barge a pull in that direction, which may ac
Decree for libellant against both tugs, with an order of reference.