164
FEDERAL REPORTER,
vol. 49.
ROebbck sustained any iiljury, and as no cross-libel bas been filed by her owners, a decree will ,be entered awarding to"libelant one-half the damages 'by the Hogan.
CoLLIsION' IN
,; .4 steam-boatrpoved out of her
slip in a oarefuland, proper manner, after due notice to two oanal-boats, Intrnders,ill the slip, of her Intention, and after providinga steam-tug as a helper. Her side, however,.oamelin ,oontact with one of the !/Oats, which in turn was i pM/Bsed against.. lJbelant'. boat, and damaRed it. BeW; tbat the steamer was not liable for the collision. , .' d
ANt) O.lNAL-BOAT-IN'1'BtrDIn BoAT.
In. Admiralty. Appeal from Ii. decree of the circuit court of the United States for the sO,uthern district of New York. The district lor said district circ"itcourt, which afdismissed the libel, and libelant appealed to firmed pro forma the decree of the district court,and libelant appealed to. this regulations of the New York city dock department, only seven .canal-boats may dock in the the foot of Rutgers street, 1Dast river. The slip is the regular berth of the steam-boat canal-boat was, one of 'seven lllwfully in the slip, Express: when two more canal-boats came in and moored ,9utside of her. The space lefUar to was very narrow. She seasonthe, o,utside boatS,?! her. the slip, and ably them to move away,whIch they dId not Qo. She aIso had a tug to herAn,ploving. She' moved. out nearly.in; a straight line, but he.r.starboardslde came in contact WIth the outsIde and. libelant'sbQl1t squeezed between t4e outsidebO'l1ts and a shorter' boat lying inside ,of her, and received injuries for which this suit was brought., .,... .' ·. ' Hyi<znq for appellant. '. Putnam, for appellee. PER CultiAM. We are unable to. find the Express in fault for this collision.. ,She notified the boats,whose presence in the slip caused all the trouble,to move before she left her berth, and was under no obligation to fumish them with the means to obey the orders of the dockmaster, to like effect, given them earlier in the day. She was properly berthed· at her pier, had the right to leave it, and was entitled to
, THE CLARA.
765
the use ofwater sufficient for such maneuver. The space in which she was cdmpelled tonarigatewa.s greatly reduced by the presence in the slip of more boats than the regulations of the dock-master permitted, but the space was still sufficient to warrant a reasonable expectation that. Ilhe could draw out without doing any greater damage than would result from the ordinary contact of boats when moring in crowded slips. She exeJ,'cised due care in leaving, did not move rashly, notified the intrudingboats to withdraw, and provided a steam-tug, by whose aseistanee she might counteract the danger to be from the tide pressing her against the pier, and thus swinging her stem out against them. eo far ,as the evidence shows, she moved out carefully, and line, as her greatest breadth of beam nearly ina' drew towards the outer end of the pier, she did come in contabtwith the outermost boat, pressing it with considerable force against its neighbor. Even then it is not likely that the libelant's boat would have been damaged had it not been that she was berthed aga.iilst a boat so much shorter than herself that the pressure she received from the other boats was not evenly distributed. Were this a controversy between the Express and the intruding boats, the latter would be held solely in fault; their wrongful act, which unnecessarily and unlawfully embarrasSed the Express when leaving, her slip, being the immediate and proximate cause of the collision. The mere fact that the libelant's boat was not herself in-:mult does not change the situation; her remedy for the injuries from collision. with, the other canal-boats is against them, not against the Express. Decree appealed from' is. affirmed, with disbursements of the circuit court and the costs of this court.
McCAFFREY
daZe
tI. THE CLABA AND THE RELIANCJII.'
(1HBtrict Court, B. D. New yOrk. February 14, 1892.)
1.
CoLLISIOlr-EAEl'I'RIVEB-COBLBAB'S HOOX-STATUTE AS TO MID-RIVER-liUGGIlrG SHORB-SIGNALS OMITTED.
The tug'V., with a tol!Jwas goiug up the Eailt river with the stroug flood-tide, withm.400 feet of the !'lew York shore, and was nearing Corlear's Hook. The steam.barge a, comiug down stream nearer the New York spore, on Pllossing from the .slack-water iuto the strong' flood-tide off the Hook, setting a little acros!! the river; her head to port, and collided with the tow of the C., though both vessels Held, that the C. WBolI in fault (1) for disobeying the statute whiohreqliil'ed her to take'the middle of the river; also (2) for not and , (8) .fQr 1l0tgi'Vingmore room for the awing of the R. in the cro.t.ide.The R.,