The Norwood

• Decision Date: 09 July 1914
• Docket Number: 1265.
• Citation: 215 F. 655
• Parties: THE NORWOOD.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Washington

215 F. 655

THE NORWOOD.

No. 1265.

United States District Court, W.D. Washington, Southern Division.

July 9, 1914

C. W Hodgdon, of Hoquiam, Wash., and Frederick H. Murray and Charles W. Stewart, both of Tacoma, Wash., for libelant.

John C Hogan, of Aberdeen, Wash., for respondents Sudden &amp Christensen and steamship Norwood.

Hudson Holt & Harmon, of Tacoma, Wash., for respondent Soule Tug & Barge Co.

CUSHMAN District Judge.

A libel was filed herein to recover damages on account of a collision between the steamship Norwood and a scow belonging to libelant. Claimant answered, denying negligence in the navigation of the Norwood, and alleging that, at the time of the collision, the Norwood was in the exclusive control, direction, and management of the tug Hoquiam and its master, which was towing the Norwood down the Hoquiam river, and averring that the collision was either the result of an inevitable accident, or due to negligence on the part of the tug and contributory negligence on the part of libelant. Thereafter, an amended libel was filed, charging the collision to have been caused through the fault of the Norwood and the tug Hoquiam.

At the point of collision the river makes an abrupt bend to the left-- in going down the stream. At this point the river is about 200 feet wide. The steamer was a lumber-carrying schooner 203 feet long, with a 38.5-foot beam, drawing 19 1/2 feet of water, laden. Her master was a man 49 years of age, who had been following the sea for 24 years-- 13 years as a master. The Norwood had taken a cargo of lumber about one mile above the point of collision. It was low tide on the 19th day of July, 1912, at 10:44 a.m. and high tide at 5 p.m. The Norwood engaged the services of the tug Hoquiam for the purpose of towing her down the Hoquiam river into Grays Harbor proper. The Norwood, in tow of the Hoquiam left the mill dock at 2:15 p.m., and arrived opposite the wharf of the Grays Harbor Construction Company at 3 p.m., two hours before high tide. The day was clear, and there was no obstruction of any kind to the view. It was the usual and customary stage of the tide at which the Norwood and other vessels of her type went down the river. It was customary for such vessels to leave at a stage of tide that would permit them to go over the Grays Harbor bar at high tide. One hour's time was required for the Norwood to go down the river, a distance of about a mile and a half, two hours being required to go from the mouth of the river over the Grays Harbor bar. The river shoals on the left, or inside of the bend, the deeper water being on the outside of the bend, immediately in front of or underneath the wharf of libelant, at which the scow was lying moored, awaiting repairs. This wharf was placed in the position in which it was with the approval of the government engineers. At the time of the collision, the Norwood was being handled by her own crew, the tug having preceded her down the river to assist in getting her around the bend, where the collision occurred. The Norwood struck the mud in the bottom of the river causing her to sheer to port. The master signaled the engineer full speed astern as soon as the vessel struck bottom. The starboard anchor was thrown overboard and the helm put to starboard. The propeller of the Norwood is such that she backs to port, which, with the incoming tide on the port bow of the Norwood swung her bow to starboard, striking the libelant's scow. The tug Hoquiam cast off from the Norwood, made fast to the scow, and towed it across the river to the shallower water, where, having sprung a leak, she listed in such shape as to allow the machinery with which she was equipped, for screening sand and gravel, to slide off the scow into the water. The scow was 17 feet, 10 inches, in width, by 51 feet in length, with a depth of 4 feet, and had on her a screener, weighing several thousand pounds, set up on timbers at a height of 15 feet above the deck of the scow. There was a boiler on the scow about 11 feet high, resting on a brick foundation. Around this machinery was built a house.

It was realized by the captain of the Norwood and the captain of the tug that this was a dangerous bend in the river. The captain of the Norwood testified:

'I won't swear I didn't cut across the bend. I couldn't tell exactly the course without looking back, which I didn't do. At the time of the accident, the Hoquiam was on the port bow. I steered my boat on my own judgment.'

While the captain of the Norwood was familiar with the navigation of the river, he was not accustomed to handling, in its navigation, vessels as large as the Norwood. He had only been running the Norwood a short time, and had been navigating a smaller boat theretofore. The Norwood, however, was of the average size of the lumber schooners navigating the river, and larger vessels were accustomed to navigate it past the point of collision. It was shown that no sudden shoaling in the stream at the point of grounding had occurred.

Libelant relies upon the following authorities: The Transit, Fed. Cas No. 14,138; The Cayuga, 59 F. 483, 8 C.C.A. 188; Spencer on Marine Collision, p. 370, 1 et seq.; The Conqueror, 166 U.S. 125, 17 Sup.Ct. 510, 41 L.Ed. 937; Evans v. The Belgenland (D.C.) 36 F. 504; The North Star (D.C.) 140 F. 263; The Schooner Catharine v. Dickinson, ...