Thomas v. Atlantic Transport Co.

Citations

• 115 F. 852
• 1902 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 247

Syllabus

<p>Collision — Steamship and Tug — Premature Fastening of Line.</p> <p>The Minnehaha, a large steamship 600 feet long, while slowly making her way under her own steam to her berth in North river, and when some piers below it, was approached by a tug, which had been employed to assist her in docking. The tug came close alongside, and called for a line, which was passed out and made fast on the tug by two deck hands. The tug then went ahead somewhat faster than the ship, but in a parallel direction, drawing out the line until she was even with, or ahead of, the stem of the ship, when the line was made fast on the ship, and the tug, by the force of the wind and tide, swung in front of the ship, and was struck and sunk, the two deck hands being drowned. Held, that the tug, by steaming alongside instead of keeping off, placed herself in a more dangerous position, and that upon evidence, a preponderance of which showed that the line was made fast on the ship on the signal of one of the deck hands on the tug, the ship could not be held in fault</p>