Standard Dredging Corporation v. S/S SYRA, Adm. No. 4460.

• Decision Date: 02 October 1968
• Docket Number: Adm. No. 4460.
• Citation: 290 F. Supp. 260
• Parties: STANDARD DREDGING CORPORATION, a body corporate, v. S/S SYRA, her engines, boilers, etc. v. UNITED STATES of America v. J. L. DAVIS, Pilot, and Standard Dredging Corporation.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

290 F. Supp. 260

STANDARD DREDGING CORPORATION, a body corporate, v. S/S SYRA, her engines, boilers, etc. v. UNITED STATES of America v. J. L. DAVIS, Pilot, and Standard Dredging Corporation.

Adm. No. 4460.

United States District Court D. Maryland.

October 2, 1968.

John H. Skeen, Jr., Baltimore, Md., for Standard Dredging Corp.

Randall C. Coleman, Baltimore, Md., for S/S Syra and her claimant.

Stephen H. Sachs, U. S. Atty., Baltimore, Md., and Harold G. Wilson, Atty., Admiralty & Shipping Section, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for the United States.

J. Cookman Boyd, Jr., Baltimore, Md., for Davis.

THOMSEN, Chief Judge.

The original libel in this case was filed by Standard Dredging Corporation, owner of the Dredge Cartagena, against the S/S Syra to recover for damages to the pipeline of the dredge when it was struck by the Syra. The claimant of the Syra impleaded the United States, alleging that the collision was caused or contributed to by negligence of the United States in repositioning a floating buoy. The United States impleaded the Syra's pilot and libelant, and the Syra's claimant impleaded the pilot.

Facts

Some of the facts are stipulated. The other facts stated below have been found after considering the credibility of the several witnesses, whose memories have been dimmed by the passage of time.¹

The collision occurred at 0610 on December 31, 1962. The night was dark but clear. Visibility was good. A moderate gale of 40 knots was blowing from the northwest, and the sea was choppy. The temperature was seven degrees Fahrenheit.

The Brewerton-Fort McHenry Angle (the Angle) is the connecting channel between the Brewerton Channel, 600 ft. wide, leading toward Baltimore from the Chesapeake Bay at a bearing of 291, and the Fort McHenry Channel, also 600 ft. wide, leading to the Inner Harbor at a bearing of 321.

The Dredge Cartagena is about 170 ft. long and 48 ft. wide. At the time of the collision, the dredge was lying along the northeasterly edge of the Angle, approximately parallel to the edge, heading inbound, near the Fort McHenry end of the Angle and the entrance to a small channel leading northeast to the coal piers at Sparrows Point. The stern of the dredge was approximately 340 feet from the center line of the channel and the bow approximately 280 feet from the center line. The width of the Angle at that point is about 700 ft., so the stern of the dredge was lying across the northeasterly edge of the Angle. A section of pontoon pipeline described as the "first leg" extended directly from the stern of the dredge above the surface of the water southeasterly for a distance of about 150 ft. The next section, the "wing line", extended northeasterly from the first leg for about 350 ft. A "long leg line" extended from the end of the wing line east southeast parallel to the channel for about 2,550 ft. The dredge had been working along the northeasterly edge of the Angle since early December, and the pipeline had been extended as the dredge moved forward.

Buoy 4M is customarily positioned on the northeasterly edge of the Angle, at the southeastern (downstream) corner of the intersection of the Angle and the small channel leading to the coal piers, and near the point where the Angle meets the Fort McHenry Channel. The buoy was so located on the then current chart of Baltimore Harbor (C. & G.S. 545), but it was not at its charted location at the time of the collision, having been moved on December 24 to a position 200 yds. from its charted position, bearing 019 degrees. The buoy was moved by the Coast Guard at the request of libelant to permit continuation of dredging. The buoy remained lighted and continued to flash at regular intervals as it had done before. The new position of the buoy was southeast of the channel leading to the coal piers and 200 yds. northeast of the existing channel in the Angle.

Radio broadcast notice of the relocation of Buoy 4M was made by the Marine Operator, Norfolk, over 2538 KCs at 1800 on December 24, 1962, and at 1200 and 1800 on December 25, 1962. A similar broadcast notice was given by the Coast Guard Station, Portsmouth, over 466 CW at 2025 on December 24, 1962. On 2670 KCs, notice was given by NMN at 1222 on December 24, 1962, and by Fort Macon LBS, North Carolina, at 1201 on December 25, 1962. The Pilot Boat Baltimore, operated by the Association of Maryland Pilots, which is stationed near the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay and supplies pilots to vessels bound for Baltimore, regularly picks up such reports.

Written notice of the relocation of the buoy was published in Local Notice to Mariners No. 70, printed on Friday, December 28, in Portsmouth, Virginia. Copies of the publication were not received by the Coast Guard until Monday, December 31, sometime after the pipeline was struck. The Association of Maryland Pilots did not receive that publication until January 3, 1963.

The Syra is a jumboized Liberty ship of 8,634 gross tons, 492.8 ft. long and 57.1 ft. wide. At the time of the collision she was drawing 25 ft. forward and 26 ft. 6 in. aft. For some time before the collision, the Syra had been under the conn of Captain J. L. Davis of the Association of Maryland Pilots. Davis had piloted another vessel from Baltimore to the Capes on December 28, passing the dredge on his port side. After he joined the Syra on the evening of December 30, her passage up the Bay was uneventful. As she came up the Brewerton Channel and entered the Angle, Davis was in the wheelhouse on the bridge, along with the helmsman and some of the Greek officers. The lookout was on the starboard wing of the flying bridge, with an open door between him and the pilot. A carpenter was stationed as an anchor watch forward but did not serve as a lookout. The strong wind and severe cold made it difficult if not impossible to hear whistle signals at any considerable distance and difficult for the lookout to see lights. The difficulty was aggravated by the low bridge of the Syra.

As the Syra turned to enter the Angle, Davis had seen and recognized the dredge, which he had passed on December 28, when her pontoon line was in essentially the same position as it was on the morning of December 31. Davis testified that as the Syra approached the dredge about 0600, he did not see any lights on any pontoons except on the first leg leading aft from the stern. In fact, however, there were kerosene lamps burning at intervals of not over 100 ft. along both the wing line and the long leg line. The crew of the dredge had used reasonable care during the night to keep burning both the kerosene lamps and the regular electric lights on stanchions above the wing line, but the wind and the rough sea repeatedly caused ice to form on the electric lines, pulling them from their sockets and breaking the bulbs, so that it proved impossible, by the exercise of reasonable care, to keep the electric lights burning.

Captain Davis could not see from his position which way the pontoon ran, and testified that he could not be sure which side of the channel the dredge was on. He saw the blinking Buoy 4M about 600 ft. from the dredge, and rashly concluded that the dredge must have been moved to the left side of the channel, the opposite side from that on which he had seen it less than three days before. Relying on the buoy, he attempted to pass the dredge on his port side, and did not see the pontoon line until he noticed a long gray line, which was the ice on the long leg line. He was then too near the wing line to stop safely. The course he had selected ran him aground along the northeastern edge of the channel. It should be noted that during the previous hour two other ships, which had passed North Point 15 minutes and 30 minutes respectively before the Syra, passed the dredge safely on their way to anchorages inside the harbor.

Discussion

When a moving ship collides with either a vessel at anchor or with a stationary or fixed object, there is not only a presumption in favor of the anchored or stationary object, but a presumption of fault on the part of the moving vessel which shifts the burden of proof.² Aside from that presumption, it is clear that the negligence of Captain Davis, attributable to the Syra, was a proximate cause if not the sole proximate cause of the accident.

(a) He did not determine his position by reference to the Fort McHenry range lights, which are recognized as the most reliable means of ascertaining one's position. Philadelphia Electric Company v. Curtis Bay Towing Company of Pennsylvania, 260 F.Supp. 505, 508 (E.D.Pa. 1966), affirmed 390 F.2d 125 (3 Cir. 1968); Canada S. S. Lines v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., 81 F.2d 100 (7 Cir. 1936); The Manhattan, 3 F. Supp. 75 (E.D.Pa.1932), affirmed per curiam, The Bessemer, 63 F.2d 995 (3 Cir. 1933); The Miles Standish, 1928 A.M.C. 215 (S.D.N.Y.). His excuse for not doing so—that the range lights were obscured by the dredge—is unacceptable, because they were not so obscured for long, and he could readily have moved or turned slightly to a position where the relatively small...