Dorrington v. City of Detroit

• Decision Date: 06 April 1915
• Docket Number: 2574.
• Citation: 223 F. 232
• Parties: DORRINGTON v. CITY OF DETROIT.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

223 F. 232

DORRINGTON v. CITY OF DETROIT.

No. 2574.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

April 6, 1915

The chief engineer, in answer to the question, 'In your experience at the bridge would you think it was a safe operation to swing the draw for a boat to pass through in a 60-mile gale?' said, 'if I was there and they insisted on coming through I would undertake to swing it, but I would give them warning there was danger coming through if there was any way of warning them. They would go through at their own risk, because I would not say that engine would hold the bridge in a gale of 60 miles an hour. Where the wind works both ways-- it don't always work both ways sometimes it catches the corner and you might lose control of it. The only way to keep control of her is not to let her go fast.'

The pilot of the Elliott said: 'I backed her around and she was coming along all right until we got almost over to the draw, and when we got almost over to the draw she let go this stern post let go, and she hit the bridge, and we went down and over on the north side of the pier.' The libelant and appellant, Dorrington, owned the Maria Martin, a three-masted schooner, built in 1866. She was well built and well rigged; had been an important sailing vessel on the lakes, and was known in her prime as the 'Pride of the Lakes.' She was 175 feet long and 35 feet at the beam; drew 5 to 6 feet light and 14 1/2 feet loaded. Dorrington had owned her a number of years prior to November 21, 1906, and in the year 1899 she had earned $5,500 net, but for the succeeding five or six years she had earned practically nothing, the owner intending to convert her into a steamship, but was not able to do so through lack of means. Within a few months from November 21, 1906, he had refused separate offers of $6,000 and $6,500, which were regarded by apparently competent witnesses as cheap figures.

During the five years in which she was practically out of commission, she lay at anchor in one place or another in the Detroit river at Detroit, and on the day named was held by two anchors, one of 1,800 pounds, the other of 2,000 pounds to which were attached iron chains 360 feet long. On that day Dorrington was on board, and at some time after noon a southwest wind arose, which, by 4 o'clock, had developed into a gale which caused the ship to drag her anchors. Her anchorage was about one-half mile from, and about southwest of, the Belle Isle bridge, owned and constructed by the city of Detroit under the supervision of the Secretary of War, leading from the city across the American channel to Belle Isle, one of the city's parks. The American channel of the river is about northeast and southwest, the water flowing southwestwardly. The bridge lies northwest by north and southwest by south, and for present purposes may be described as having three piers, the distance between the middle pier and each of the other two being about 160 feet. The bridge had a draw 318 to 320 feet in length, resting at its center, and swung upon the middle pier, which had an extension southwestwardly of 160 feet, so that when the draw was swung one end of it stood over the end of the middle pier which, in the testimony, is called the 'crib,' the 'cradle' and sometimes the 'bridge.' The machinery for turning the draw and the men in charge were housed at the center of the draw over the crib upon which the draw rested and turned on rollers when opening. So, when the bridge was opened, there were passageways for boats, one on each side of the crib, and each about 160 feet in width, the depth of the water being about 20 feet. On or in the bottom of the river from the city to the island there was an eight-inch pipe carrying water from the city to the island. The bridge was in charge of a chief engineer and two assistants, but on the day mentioned one Martin, an assistant engineer, was in charge, and under him, two gatemen who did not have anything to do with the management of the draw. Martin had been assistant engineer for about a year, and had had no previous experience in the handling of drawbridges. According to him, the engine operating the draw was of 40 horse power. The chief engineer makes it about 20 horse power. Ordinarily 2 horse power would turn the draw. The machinery was appropriate for the kind of work it was called on to do, answered the purpose very well, and was an oscillating engine, working either way according to the way in which the steam was introduced. The speed was regulated by the amount of steam introduced and by reversing the engine. From all the testimony it may be gathered that the machinery was adequate to swing and handle the draw in a high wind or gale. There was no apparatus on the bridge for determining the velocity of the wind, which the assistant engineer said was, on that day, about 50 miles an hour; and there was other evidence tending to show that it was from 55 to 60 miles an hour. The chief engineer was not on the bridge that afternoon, and did not know an unusual wind was blowing. A 50-mile gale was not unusual in November.

The ship was drifting upstream and toward the bridge. Probably, if her course had not been changed by what took place, she would have struck the south pier, or not far to the right of that, at the bridge extending from the south pier to the island. When the ship began to drift, Dorrington, who was an experienced navigator, thinking it best to seek help, got into his skiff and pulled to Detroit for that purpose. He called on the telephone a company owning tugs, and learned that he could get but one tug, which was the only available tug in the harbor. The ship continued to drift, and the city authorities ordered the fire boat Elliott to take charge of her. It may be gathered from the testimony of the captain of the Elliott that the primary purpose was to prevent damage to the bridge, and it appears that he did not regard the ship as being of any value because of her age. He said she had lain so long in the roadway that she had become a 'joke,' and that from time to time when his boat passed her, as she lay at anchor, rotten wood would be churned out of her hull by the waves made by his boat. He afterwards said he was so told. There is nothing in the evidence to indicate that the ship was in so desperate a condition of decay as that, and the captain's further statement that he was afraid of walking on the deck lest he might go through was not warranted by anything in the testimony. The only time he was on her deck was just before dark, and before he left darkness had set in, as will appear.

The Elliott left her moorings at 4:45 p.m., and the ship struck the crib at about 5:15. It is uncertain how long the Elliott was engaged in attempting to prevent the ship from striking the bridge, for the time varies in the testimony from half an hour to five minutes. The ship was drifting sternway upstream and going toward the bridge. She was going slowly, the evidence fairly disclosing that it took about two hours for her to drift from her anchorage to the crib of the bridge. That would be about 22 feet a minute. Primarily the Elliott was not a tug, nor was it her duty ordinarily to tow vessels. Her crew consisted of seven men, none of whom, excepting the pilot, being seamen. They were firemen. She was in charge of a captain and managed by the pilot, who took her wherever the captain directed. The Elliott overtook the drifting ship at a point about 500 feet southeast of the crib, coming up on the starboard, aft. The sea was high, the waves running as much as four feet, which was unusual. The captain and another jumped aboard the ship and carried, or there was thrown, from the fire boat, a heaving line attached to a hawser, which the captain or his assistant attached to some post, whether a tow post, or a quarter post, or a cleat, does not clearly appear. At any rate, when the fire boat started to pull the stern of the ship around, that is to say, northwardly, the hawser came away. Thereupon the captain and his assistant hauled it back to the ship and there fastened it, probably to a quarter post used for light towing when the strain is fore and aft, which was not, however, suitable for such a side strain as was necessarily imposed upon it by the effort of the fire boat to haul the stern of the ship around. There were two tow posts located just forward of the cabin, and at perhaps one-third of the length of the ship from the stern. These tow posts went through to the keelson, and were anchored there. The quarter posts were further toward the stern, and nearer the gunwale of the ship. They went through, too, to the skin of the vessel, but were only anchored by heavy bolts going through the heavy beam running transversely of the vessel and on which the deck rested. It is probable that on the second attempt to fasten the hawser the quarter post came away under the strain. Dorrington described it as having been 'pulled out by the roots.' The captain of the Elliott said the post he fastened to, whatever it was, was rotten. It is here found that skillful seamen, accustomed to towing vessels, would not ordinarily hitch to such a quarter post in order to pull a vessel around. When the second attempt was made the ship was about 10 feet from the end of, and toward the south of, the crib. These two attempts to pull the stern around had been, to some extent, successful. The ship had been brought around so as to present her side to the wind, which caused her to lie somewhat broadside to the bridge, the draw not having been opened. She struck first at the stern, aft, and, according to one witness, the assistant engineer, 25 to 50 feet from the end of the crib, and her stern chewed along the crib while her jib-boom struck the railing of the bridge. It broke, as...