The Edwin
| Decision Date | 28 April 1898 |
| Citation | 87 F. 540 |
| Parties | THE EDWIN. v. THE EDWIN. CRAWLEY |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York |
Alex. McKinney and Robert H. Roy, for libelant.
Covers & Kirlin, for claimant.
The libelant is a longshoreman. On the 29th day of December 1898, he was employed by a firm of stevedores to assist in loading with grain the claimant's steamship, the Edwin. The ship was lying at a dock at the foot of Pacific street Brooklyn, with her bow in, and her starboard side abreast the wharf. The grain was brought into the aft hatch from an elevator on the port side of the ship, by means of a pipe 70 feet in length. The free end of the pipe was supported by a line running from it to a gaff of the ship. Slipped over the end of the pipe, and held to the same by a rope, was a sleeve or nozzle, about 16 feet long and some 8 inches wide. This sleeve ran into the hatch of the ship sufficiently to carry the grain into the port or starborad side thereof accordingly as the free end of the sleeve was raised or lowered. To raise or lower the end of the sleeve for this purpose was the duty of the libelant. To enable him to do this, a rope was fastened to the sleeve, somewhere along the portion thereof extending from about the coaming of the claimant claims that, to obtain a purchase on the sleeve, the libelant had carried the rope over the boom, which was some 6 feet to the starboard of the sleeve, and which extended from the mast across the hatch to a point aft thereof, where it rested on a crotch. The boom was about 46 1/2 feet long, measured 12 inches in diameter, weighed about 1,800 pounds, and could only be moved from its position by some great force suitably applied for that purpose. The boom was not supported otherwise than by the mast at one end and the crotch at the other. The crotch consisted of two pieces of wood, 6 inches in width and 3 inches in thickness, set into each other at the point of intersection, and holding the end of the boom some 7 feet above the deck. On the deck were bolted pieces of wood, each 9 by 7 inches in length and breadth, with a recess 3 by 6 1/2 inches by 1 inch deep, into which the log fitted. Crotches of this sort for holding booms are of the kind. Somewhere from 10 to 20 years ago, iron supports, firmly fastened to the deck, came into use, and are now generally employed on the new ships. The wooden crotches, however, continue in use on the older ships, and it is not apparent that they are not sufficiently suitable. In such case it was not the duty of the shipowner to provide the later appliance for the protection of the libelant, although it might in some respect be superior.
While the libelant was attending to the sleeve, and leaning over and looking down into the hatch for that purpose, the boom fell over to port and struck him, doing the injury which is the...
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