THE CATALINA

• Decision Date: 06 March 1937
• Docket Number: No. 7594-Y.,7594-Y.
• Citation: 18 F. Supp. 461
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of California
• Parties: THE CATALINA. EDWARDS et al. v. WILMINGTON TRANSP. CO.

18 F. Supp. 461

THE CATALINA EDWARDS et al. v. WILMINGTON TRANSP. CO.

No. 7594-Y.

District Court, S. D. California, Central Division.

March 6, 1937.

McCutchen, Olney, Mannon & Greene (by Harold A. Black), Newlin & Ashburn (by Gurney E. Newlin), and Neil G. Locke, all of Los Angeles, Cal., for libelants.

Young, Lillick, Olson & Kelly (by Edward R. Young) and James L. Adams, all of Los Angeles, Cal., for respondents and petitioners.

YANKWICH, District Judge.

This is a libel, seeking damages to property and person, resulting from the collision between the yacht Arbutus, owned by two of the libelants (the Edwardses), and the steamship Catalina, owned by the respondent and claimant, Wilmington Transportation Company.

The collision occurred in the fog about 5:04 p. m., April 10, 1936, on the Pacific Ocean about seven and one-half miles north of Catalina Island.

The Arbutus is a wooden cruiser yacht, 77 feet long, 15-foot beam, with a gross tonnage of 48, powered by a six-cylinder Atlas Imperial Diesel engine of 120 horsepower. Her engine is controlled from the pilothouse by levers located immediately to the right of the operator at the wheel. She is capable of making at full speed nine knots per hour.

The Catalina is a twin-screw passenger vessel, powered with two triple expansion reciprocating steam engines, length overall 301 feet, 7 inches, length between perpendiculars 285 feet, beam 52 feet, moulded depth 21 feet, 1,766 gross tons, built to Class A-1, American Bureau of Shipping, in 1924, and designed especially for the Santa Catalina Island run. Signals to the engine room from the bridge are given by the usual telegraphs, of which there are two, on either wing of the bridge, from either of which instruments signals to both engines can be given.

On the voyage on which the collision occurred, the crew of the yacht consisted of a master, a deck hand, and a cook. The steamship's complement of crew was 50, with 2 licensed deck officers. She was carrying 474 passengers.

On the yacht, in addition to the crew, were the owners, the Edwardses, and their guests, Walter R. Leeds and May H. Leeds.

The Arbutus took her departure from the breakwater at San Pedro Harbor, California, at 3:22 p. m. At the time, it had the San Pedro breakwater light abeam and steadied on a course of south one-quarter east magnetic. She did not change this position. The weather was clear. The sea was fair. Later, in the channel, there was a windy chop, about west, with a force of about two, by Beaufort scale. About three-quarters of an hour later, the yacht ran into a fog. It was, what the witnesses on all sides have described as, a drifting fog. At times, there was fair light and visibility for a mile or so. Then the fog would close in very thick, limiting visibility to not more than one hundred yards. When the fog was encountered, the master of the Arbutus slowed down to a speed of about six knots. However, he changed the speed when the space would clear, which it did at various places, for a mile or so. For fifteen minutes or so prior to the collision, she had been going at the rate of about six knots.

At the same time, the master gave fog signals by pulling a chord suspended practically over his head, at the wheel, in the pilothouse. The chord blew an air whistle about sixteen or eighteen inches long, which is blown by compressed air carried in tanks in the engine room, with a maximum pressure of 225 pounds. The compressor was pumping during the entire time, and the pressure, as judged by a gauge in the pilothouse, never went lower than 200 pounds. The blasts were five to six seconds in length, blown at intervals of a minute and a minute and a half. The fog whistle blew from the time the Arbutus entered the fog until the time of the collision.

The master posted a lookout on the port side of the forward deck, outside the pilothouse, at a distance of about twenty-three feet abaft the stem. The deck was painted and there was no rail. It was covered with a canvas which made it very slippery when wet, and which would have made it impossible for anyone to stand lookout except close to the pilothouse. After the yacht entered the fog, the lookout remained at his post up to the time of the collision. The only other duty he performed was to wipe the spray from the glass window of the pilothouse back of which stood the master at the wheel. This he did by using a chamois cloth which he carried in his pocket for the purpose. At 4:46 p. m. the Catalina loomed out of the fog suddenly, and, apparently, without warning, bearing down on the Arbutus on an approximate parallel opposite course. The lookout signaled to the master, and shouted: "Steamer, dead ahead!" The master, at the same time, swung the wheel of the Arbutus hard right in the hope that by swinging the yacht as rapidly as possible to starboard and away from the Catalina, he could avoid a collision. The operation was unsuccessful and the stem of the steamship struck the port side of the yacht at a point just abaft the stack and ripped a large hole in the Arbutus back to the stern, tearing out frames and allowing the sea to pour in. The Catalina's anchor fouled the wooden top of the Arbutus which served as a canopy, and ripped it off from the port corner of the pilothouse all the way aft inboard for a distance of approximately two feet, also splintering glass, timbers, and stanchions all along the port side. The yacht became awash aft and its occupants cleared a life boat and made their way to, and were eventually taken aboard, the Catalina. The master of the Arbutus described the events thus:

"Q. By Mr. Black: What was the first knowledge you had of the presence of the Catalina? A. Well, my deck hand saw it at the same time I saw it, — just about. We saw it about the same time. When he hollered, I saw it, too.

"Q. Did you hear any fog signal from the Catalina prior to sighting her? A. No, sir.

"Q. Did anybody on the vessel report hearing a fog signal? A. No, sir.

"Q. From any vessel prior to the time of the collision? A. No.

"Q. What did the deck hand do when he reported the vessel ahead? A. He just hollered. He saw the Catalina and then jumped to the pilothouse door and then over on the other side.

"Q. When you glanced up and saw the Catalina, what was her direction from you? A. She was right ahead.

"Q. What was her apparent course? A. Looked to be opposite.

"Q. What was her distance away? A. Her distance away, I should judge, between 100 and 150 yards.

"Q. Did you observe anything at that moment that indicated to you the apparent speed of the Catalina? A. I saw the stem cutting through the water and the boat increasing in size pretty fast.

"Q. Did you see the stem in the water? A. Yes, sir.

"Q. Did you notice the stem and the water line in conjunction? A. I didn't quite get that.

"Q. Did you notice the point of meeting between the stem and the water line of the Catalina? A. No. I could see the water line. I saw the water.

"Q. What water did you see? A. The bow water, cutting through.

"Q. Do you call that a wave? A. Well, it is a bow wave; yes, sir.

"Q. What part of the Catalina did you particularly see? A. I saw the stem, the bow.

"Q. What did you do immediately you saw the Catalina, if you did anything? A. Turned my wheel to the right, going starboard.

"Q. What effect, if any, did that maneuver have on the direction and course of your vessel, if you know? A. It would swing it to starboard.

"Q. Well, did it? A. Well, it did some; not much.

"Q. Do you think it had any effect as to the point of impact on your vessel? A. Yes, sir.

"Q. What effect? A. Well, if I hadn't swung it, we probably would have been sliced all the way mid-ships right along. In this way, we met a glancing blow that I figured probably saved us."

The events immediately preceding the collision, as they presented themselves to the officers of the Catalina, were: When fog was encountered, the Catalina stationed a proper lookout at her bow on her boat deck forward. He stood within an inclosure made by a chain some six feet from the stem, and remained there up to the time of the collision. The Catalina was in fog of varying intensity from 4:45 p. m. to 5:04 p. m. Her captain, her first officer, and the lookout saw the Arbutus at about the same time. The lookout signaled to the bridge and sang out: "Yacht, dead ahead!"

The captain stated that when the Arbutus was sighted, she was distant "about our ship length." According to the lookout, the Arbutus was bearing straight ahead, not dead ahead, or, as he explained it, slightly on the starboard side, on a course not quite parallel, but more crossing from east to west of that of the Catalina. What the captain did is described in his own words:

"Q. When you first sighted the Arbutus, what did you do and what did you observe? A. Immediately upon sighting her, I ordered `Hard right.' That means hard right rudder.

"Q. To whom did you give that order? A. To the quartermaster and went to the starboard telegraph, moving right along, and told him to telegraph `Stop.' Stayed there just a moment, to sort of collect my balance and pushed it right down to `Full astern.' I was on the starboard bridge at that time and I went across to the port wing of the bridge * * * before I left the starboard wing the Arbutus and the Catalina had come together."

As near as the officers of the Catalina could judge, only five or six seconds elapsed between the time they sighted the Arbutus and the collision. To them the Arbutus seemed to be going full speed, i. e., nine knots. They heard their own whistle just before the collision, but not that of the Arbutus.

The yacht was a total loss.

Libelants Walter R. Leeds, a guest, and William Zorn, the cook, suffered personal injuries. The others suffered loss of personal effects.

The libel seeks to recover damages for these losses and injuries. The respondents and claimant deny fault. By petition, the claimant has also impleaded...