Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/820

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

WEAVEE ». SCHOONER ONMST. 813 �or in not porting her helm at that time, and in starboarding her helm after that time and before the collision, and not by any neglect, omission or fault on the part of said schooner Mary Weaver, her master or crew. �Fourth. That said collision so much injured said schooner Mary Weaver that she was in great danger of sinking/ and her master, springing on board said Onmst, made fast a line to the capstan of said Onmst, informing the master of the Onmst of the criticalcondition of the Mary Weaver and her boat, and asking him to stay by and take off the crew of the Mary Weaver, in case it should become necessary so to do to save their lives, which the master of the Onmst promised to do till light ; and when the master of the Mary Weaver re- turned to his own schooner he let go his largest anchor and 60 fathoms of chain, and an equal length of the line attached to the Onmst, set and kept his pumps agoing, and endeav- ored to fasten a piece of canvas over the breach in the side of and under his vessel, and endeavored in every way possi- ble to keep his vessel afloat and save her, and continued thus engaged with his crew till about half-past 1 o'clock on the morning of the eighteenth of December, A. D. 1879, when the master of the Onmst, or some one on board of the Onmst, eut the line that had been attached to her as aforesaid, and the Onmst sailed olï, though the wind was still high and the night bitterly cold, leaving the Mary Weaver and her master and crew to save themselvea as best they oould. The master and crew of the Mary Weaver, finding themselves left in this critical condition, set themselves to work to extricate and repair their boat, which had been broken somewhat and driven under the side and stern of the schooner by the col- lision, and after great labor and suffering and danger suc- ceeded in getting it ont and fixing it so that it might possibly be used ; and the wind soon after abating somewhat, the injured schooner did not make so much water as she had been doing, and the pumps, which had been kept in constant operation, kept her aiioat till the next forenoon, when the New London freight boat came along and towed her into the har- bor of New London, where she lay nine days making such 14* ����