The Alleghany/Opinion of the Court

by William Strong

United States Supreme Court

76 U.S. 522

The Alleghany

If the facts of the case, about which there is little, if any dispute, be considered, there is no difficulty in determining where the fault of the collision rests. The tug, though a steamer, was incumbered with a tow. She was, therefore, not as manageable as the propeller. She could not back, or even stop, without danger of collision with the schooner. It was necessary in entering the cut from the river that both the tug and her tow should cross the bow of the propeller heading toward the south pier; and as the cut entered the river at nearly right angles, it was also necessary for her to increase her speed at the entrance in order to bring the schooner into line and prevent her running against the south pier. The course of both the tug and the schooner required to be changed not less than ninety degrees within a distance not much exceeding two hundred feet. All this was known to the master of the propeller. His steamer was entering the harbor. It was, of course, his duty to move with great caution. He knew that the entrance was narrow and difficult, especially if other vessels were to be passed. He knew that near the west end of the cut the water on the north side was shoal, and he knew how much water the propeller needed. He knew also that at the west end a tug passing out to the lake, with a two in charge, must change her course to the east, and keep up her speed in order to straighten out the tow. What, then, was his duty? Apprised, as he was in season, of the approach of the tug and schooner, and planning, as the answer to the libel avers he did, to meet them, not in the river, but between the harbor piers, it was obviously his duty to avoid the meeting in that part of the cut where the propeller could not go to the north side, and to make no attempt to pass until the tug could straighten out her tow. He had it in his power to select the place for passing. If it be, as is now contended, that the propeller could not at that part of the cut go nearer the north pier, in consequence of the bar, she was not the less in fault. She ought not to have been there. She ought to have foreseen the difficulty and guarded against it. And this fault was closely connected with another. The propeller entered the cut at too great a rate of speed. This increased the danger. It brought her to the place of greatest difficulty at the most unfavorable time for passing it, besides making her unmanageable. It is true her engines were reversed when she was in close proximity to the schooner, but not soon enough to stop her forward movement before she reached the most dangerous point in the channel, not soon enough to prevent her running into the schooner before she could be straightened out for her course through the cut. It is thus manifest that the collision was caused by the misconduct of those in charge of the propeller.

We do not perceive that the tug was at all in fault. It was not in her power to stop without either colliding with the schooner or permitting the schooner to run upon the south pier. At the time of the collision both the tug and the schooner were on the south side of the channel, where they had a right to be.

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