Wood Towing Corp. v. Tomasos (25 F.2d 395, 1928)

NORTHCOTT, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a decree in admiralty entered in the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Virginia, on the 9th of June, 1927, ordering that the appellant recover from the appellee the sum of $8,184.-10, together with one-half of the cost of the proceeding.

On December 30, 1926, at about 5:45 p. m., the master of tug Alvah H. Boushell, owned by the Wood Towing Corporation, a corporation, was in charge of the shifting of the Luciston, an English vessel, 420 feet in length, from a point in Anchorage D in Hampton Roads, on the west side of the channel, to an inshore berth on the south side of the Virginian Railway Company’s pier No. 2, at Sewalls Point, Va. At the time it was dark, and the weather was clear and moderate. The Alvah H. Boushell was moored on the starboard side of the Luciston forward of the ship’s bridge, and the tug Nonpariel was moored on the starboard quarter of the ship. The master of the tug Alvah H. Boushell was on the ship’s bridge, and in charge of the navigation of the ship. With the tug’s engines idle and under the power of the steamship’s engines, the Luciston was proceeding easterly on a course which would carry her across the channel. As she approached the channel near Gas and Bell Buoy No. 8, the master of the tug Alvah H. Boushell heard one blast of a whistle from the southward. This he immediately answered, and stopped the Luciston. The master of the tug Alvah H. Boushell and the master of the Luciston claim to have carefully searched for the lights of -an approaching vessel from which the blast of the whistle came, and, seeing none, concluded that the whistle heard was blown by another steamer that could be seen in some distance away. The Luciston again proceeded on her course across the channel toward the pier. In the meantime, the steamship Despina, a Greek vessel, 336.5 feet long, that was coming down the channel on her way to sea, on a course at right angles to the course of the Luciston, appeared in close proximity to the Luciston, and the two vessels collided. Although the force' of the collision was not very great, the starboard forward quarter of the tug Alvah H. Boushell was caught between the two ships and crushed. She was so damaged that she had to be beached at a point.east of the channel.

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