232 F. 448 | 2d Cir. | 1916
January 18, 1913, about 5 p. m., the tug Wyomissing was going up the East River with a hawser tow of four tiers, having four loaded canal boats in each tier, and two tailing on behind the middle boats of the last tier. The hawsers were 150 feet long, the boats about 100 feet long, and the tiers were 5 or 6 feet apart, so that the tow extended say 650 feet from the stern of the tug. The tide was flood and the wind southwest.
The East River runs from Brooklyn Bridge to Corlears Hook about east and west, and the flood tide sets over from the Brooklyn Bridge to the New York shore to a point above the Manhattan Bridge, and then runs along the New York shore to Corlears Hook. The effect of this is that there is an eddy tide from the Brooklyn Bridge for a considerable distance along the Brooklyn shore. The southwest wind blows quartering across the stream to New York.
The tug Montauk, with a car float on her starboard side and the tug Wrestler on the starboard side of the float, came down the East River and crossed from Corlears Hook to the Brooklyn side. The two tows were meeting starboard to starboard on the Brooklyn side of the river, which is there about 1,200 feet wide. As they were passing under the Manhattan Bridge the Wyomissing starboarded and the tail of her tow swung over toward the Brooklyn shore, whereupon the Mon-tauk went in toward Brooklyn, and afterwards the Wrestler reversed full speed astern, with the view of throwing the stern of the car float away from the tail of the Wyomissing’s tow; but the Videtto, which was the starboard of the two boats tailing on to the tow, came into collision at her starboard quarter with the starboard quarter of the Wrestler, sustaining considerable damage.
The owner of the Videtto filed a libel against the Wrestler, and the claimant of the Wrestler brought in the Wyomissing under the fifty-ninth rule (29 Sup. Ct. xlvi). The answer of the claimant of the Wy-omissing to the petition stated:
“While the Wyomissing and her'tow were in the middle of the river, and when shortly above the Brooklyn Bridge, the tugs Montank and Wrestler, with a car float between said tugs, were coming down, the Bast River on the*450 Brooklyn side. The Wrestler was on the starboard side of the car float. It was not possible for the Wyomissing to pass the said oncoming tow port to port as the latter was too near the Brooklyn shore, but there was abundant room to pass starboard to starboard, had the tugs Wrestler and Montauk either gone closer to the Brooklyn shore or stopped or slowed down for a few moments. The Wyomissing starboarded her wheel in order to give more room to the said tugs and car float, but, being .incumbered with the tow as she was, she did not quite succeed ini pulling the tail end of the tow clear of the Wrestler, with the result that the starboard quarter of the Yidetto struck the starboard quarter of the tug Wrestler, injuring the boat Videtto.”
The District Judge found the Wrestler solely at fault, saying that she was coming down on the wrong side of the river, that the witnesses of the Wyomissing impressed him favorably, and that he was convinced their recollection of the circumstances was correct.
The decree is reversed.