Baltimore & Boston Barge Co. v. Knickerbocker Steam Towage Co.
| Decision Date | 25 May 1909 |
| Docket Number | 802. |
| Parties | BALTIMORE & BOSTON BARGE CO. v. KNICKERBOCKER STEAM TOWAGE CO. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Edward C. Plummer, for appellant.
Benjamin Thompson (Edward S. Dodge, on the brief), for appellee.
Before COLT and PUTNAM, Circuit Judges, and BROWN, District Judge.
This appeal relates to the grounding of the barge Emilie on rocks outside the ship channel, near Goodwin's Point, off the southerly end of Nehumkeag Island, in the Kennebec river, on August 21, 1906. The Emilie was a very long and heavy vessel 216 feet long and 1,069 gross tons, and loaded with ice. She was in tow of the tug Seguin, which was ahead on a hawser about 20 fathoms in length, and of the tug Charlie Lawrence made fast to her port quarter.
The testimony of the masters of the barge and the tugs is set forth with much detail in the opinion of the District Court 159 F. 755, 763, et seq.
Upon a careful examination of the record we find nothing of importance in the testimony which was not considered by the District Court. Upon the evidence the District Judge found that the injury was caused by the fact that the barge, when off Nehumkeag Island, took a sudden sheer of about three points to starboard; that in order to break this sheer the Seguin was compelled to go to port and the Lawrence to reverse; that the sheer to starboard being broken the barge sheered to port, and before this sheer could be corrected the barge dragged across the rocks, which inflicted some injury though the forward movement of the barge was not checked.
We are of the opinion that the District Court was justified in finding that according to the preponderance of the testimony the barge, when in the vicinity of Nehumkeag Island, took a sudden and unusual sheer to starboard.
The testimony upon this point was in direct conflict; the master of the barge denying that there was any sheer to starboard, the masters of the tugs both testifying to a very pronounced sheer to starboard, and also to the different movements of the Seguin and the Charlie Lawrence in the attempt to break that sheer. The movements testified to by Capt. Blanchard of the Charlie Lawrence are not denied by the master of the barge, and are such as are entirely consistent with the finding that there was a strong sheer of the barge to starboard, which the tugs were obliged to maneuver to correct.
The finding of the court that the...
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Bisso v. Waterways Transportation Company, 15464.
...cause, not the label, cf. Baltimore & Boston Barge Co. v. Knickerbocker Steam Towage Co., D.C.Me., 159 F. 755, 766, 767, affirmed 1 Cir., 170 F. 442, 443; The Algic, D.C.S.D.Fla., 13 F. Supp. 834, 838; The Bulkcrude, D.C. Tex., 107 F.Supp. 771, 774, 1952 A.M.C. 1400; The Oscar B., 9 Cir., 1......
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THE ALGIC
...personnel. Nor is there any claim that the vessels took a sudden sheer while entering the channel. Cf. Baltimore & Boston Barge Co. v. Knickerbocker Steam Towage Co. (C. C.A.) 170 F. 442. The undisputed testimony is that both sagged by the stern slowly to port under the effect of flood curr......