Norwich & N.Y. Propeller Co. v. The Transfer No. 5
| Decision Date | 22 January 1892 |
| Docket Number | THE TRANSFER 5. |
| Citation | 49 F. 398 |
| Parties | NORWICH & N.Y. PROPELLER CO. v. THE TRANSFER NO. 5. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
Carpenter & Mosher, for libelant.
Page & Taft and Robert D. Benedict, for claimant.
About 3 o'clock in the morning of June 9, 1891, tide being ebb as the steam-tug Transfer No. 5 was proceeding eastward through the easterly channel of Hell Gate near the Astoria shore, having a car-float loaded with cars lashed to her port side and projecting ahead of her about 75 feet, the float came in collision with the libelant's steam-propeller Delaware coming westward, striking the latter upon her starboard side about 20 feet from her stern, and inflicting considerable damage, to recover which the above libel was filed.
There is some dispute as to the precise place of the collision otherwise, there is less contradiction than usual in collision cases. I find the following facts:
(1) The collision was about abreast of, and not below, the small point on which a derrick was located, about half-way between the Astoria ferry and Hallet's Point light, and was within, or along, the margin of the eddy, which upon the ebb-tide makes up along the Astoria shore, extending out from 50 to 150 feet from the shore.
(2) The tug had come up through the southerly channel by Blackwell's island and had passed quite near the Astoria ferry for the evident purpose of obtaining the benefit of the slack-water or upward current of the eddy near that shore instead of going out in the channel where the tide would be about four knots against her.
(3) The Delaware was a small steamer, about 126 feet long, and of 8 1/2 feet draught; she passed Negro point about two or three hundred feet from the shore, shaped her course nearly due west so as to pass about the same distance from Hallet's point, then swung to port to go down the easterly channel in her usual course at this stage of the tide, that is, about one-third the distance across to Flood rock, or about 200 or 250 feet from the Astoria shore. When she got straightened down the east channel so as to head for the Blackwell's Island light, and being about abreast of Hallet's point or a little below it, she first saw the tug's green light, and her vertical lights indicating a tow, a little on the Delaware's port bow, and estimated their position to be a little below the Astoria ferry within 150 feet of the shore,...
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The City of Norwalk
...situation as Hell Gate to trust to mere inference derived from the light seen, or the supposed position at a particular moment. The Transfer No. 5, 49 F. 398. The as to signals are designed for the purpose of securing a common understanding and of preventing just such mistakes as the presen......
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The Friesland
...proposal to depart from the rule of the road by going to the left under a signal of two whistles, was at her own risk. The Transfer No. 5, 49 F. 398; The Rockaway, F. 856, affirmed 43 F. 544; The Baltimore, 56 F. 127. The position and course of the Bellarden were manifest at least half a mi......