Statement of the case.

a year of financial revulsion and distress throughout the greater part, if not the whole, of the commercial world, the effects of which were still felt in the spring of 1858. In such a time proof of the practicability of obtaining funds, in a port so remote, upon the credit of the owner, should be clear indeed in order to affect a lender upon bottomry with the duty of inquiry.

On the whole the decree of the Circuit Court must be REVERSED, and the cause must be remanded to that court with directions to refer the accounts for repairs and supplies to one or more commissioners experienced in commerce and of known intelligence and probity, to ascertain, under the instructions of the court, what portion of the repairs and supplies, actually furnished to the ship, were really necessary, and for the amount thus ascertained and approved by the court to enter

DECREE FOR THE LIBELLANTS.

LATHAM'S AND DEMING'S APPEALS.

An appellant has a right to have his appeal dismissed notwithstanding the opposition of the other side.

THESE were two appeals from the Court of Claims, in suits against the United States. They had been passed at former terms, and early at this one. It being alleged by Mr. Hoar, Attorney-General, that they involved a question of public interest-to wit, the legal tender question-which he desired, for some reasons which he stated, to have passed on anew, he asked the court to fix a day at this term for argument upon them, it being stated by him that it was, in his opinion, most desirable that the matter should not be postponed to the next term. After opposition and some delays by Messrs. Carlisle and Merryman, for the appellants respectively, who denied that any question of legal tender was presented in the records, and asserted that the cases, whenever called, had been passed, on an understanding by themselves, the

Statement of the case.

*

counsel of the government, and the court, that if any such question were properly in them it should abide the decision to be made in Hepburn v. Griswold, then under consideration by the court-a day was fixed for the hearing of the cases. When the day arrived the cases were postponed, owing to another case being before the court. Being finally called, Mr. L. S. Chatfield, with whom was Mr. Merryman, for the appellants respectively, offered a stipulation signed by them in behalf of their clients, and moved to dismiss the appeals. The Attorney-General opposed the motion; stating that it was a surprise to him; that he was now prepared to argue the cases, and desired to do so.

After some conference on the bench, where the judges did not seem to be entirely unanimous, the court withdrew for consultation. On their return, the CHIEF JUSTICE announced it as the unanimous judgment of the court that the appellants had a right to have their appeals dismissed, and they were both DISMISSED ACCORDINGLY.

THE JOHNSON.

Steamers navigating in crowded channels and in the vicinity of wharves, must be run and managed with great caution, and with a strict regard to the established rules of navigation, including that one which requires them, when approaching from opposite directions, to put their helms to port. If they are about to attempt any manœuvre not usual and clearly safe, such as running in under the bows of another vessel in motion, they must not only sound their whistle or give the other proper signal, but before attempting the manœuvre must be certain also that the signal was heard and understood by the approaching vessel.

APPEAL from the Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York, in a case of collision, the case being this:

All steamers navigating the crowded waters of the New York harbor, were bound in 1863 to obey the following RULES OF NAVIGATION, prescribed originally for the conduct of passenger steamers, but adopted by other vessels.

* The Legal Tender Case, 8 Wallace, 603.

Statement of the case.

"RULE 1. When steamers meet 'head and head,' it shall be the duty of each to pass to the right, or on the larboard side of the other, and either pilot, upon determining to pursue this course, shall give as a signal of his intention one short and distinct blast of his steam-whistle, which the other shall answer promptly by a similar blast of the whistle. But if the course of each steamer is so far on the starboard of the other as not to be considered by the rules as meeting 'head and head,' or if the vessels are approaching in such a manner, that passing to the right (as above directed), is unsafe, or contrary to rule, by the pilot of either vessel, the pilot so deciding shall immediately give two short and distinct blasts of his steam-whistle, which the other pilot shall answer by two similar blasts of his whistle, and they shall pass to the left, or on the starboard side of each other.

“RULE 2. When steamers are approaching each other in an oblique direction, they will pass to the right, as if meeting 'head and head,' and the signal by whistle shall be given and answered promptly, as in that case specified.

"RULE 3. If, when steamers are approaching each other, the pilot of either vessel fails to understand the course or intention of the other, whether from the signals being given or answered erroneously, or from other cause, the pilot so in doubt shall immediately signify the same by giving several short and rapid blasts of the steam-whistle, and if the vessels shall have ap proached within half a mile of each other, both shall be immediately slowed to a speed barely sufficient for steerage-way, until the proper signals are given, answered, and understood, or until the vessels shall have passed each other.

"RULE 4. The signals, by blowing of the steam-whistle, shall be given and answered by pilots, in compliance with these rules, not only when meeting 'head and head,' or nearly so, but at all times when passing or meeting, at a distance within half a mile of each other, and whether passing to the starboard or larboard. "N. B. The foregoing rules are to be complied with in all cases, except when steamers are navigating in a crowded channel or in the vicinity of wharves; under these circumstances steamers must be run and managed with great caution, sounding the whistle as may be necessary, to guard against collisions or other accidents."

With these rules in force, the Burden, a small propeller

Statement of the case.

tug, was towing up the East River from Atlantic Dock, Brooklyn, the canal boat Kate McCord, heavily loaded with wheat, she being fastened to the larboard side of the propeller. The propeller with her tow was on her way from the Atlantic Dock, on the Brooklyn side of the East River, to Pier 44, on the New York side of it, and in a direct line from the dock to the pier. The tide was the middle of the ebb, running strongly down. In consequence of the shape of the land from Catharine Ferry to Atlantic Dock, there is a strong eddy tide which runs up along the Brooklyn shore to the upper side of the Fulton Ferry slip, when the tide is running ebb, and tugs bound up seek that eddy tide for the double reason that they get the aid of the eddy tide instead of the opposition of the ebb tide, and they avoid vessels bound down, leaving to them the advantage of the ebb tide and the breadth of the river. The propeller was, accordingly, going slowly up in that eddy tide 100 to 150 feet from the Brooklyn piers, and when she had nearly reached the ferry slip she saw the Scranton, a large side-wheel steamer, with an empty barge on each side, coming rapidly down the river, out towards the middle of the river just above the Fulton Ferry.

The Scranton, when about opposite the upper part of the Fulton Ferry slip, starboarded her helm, and at a rapid rate swept in, in a curve toward the Brooklyn shore, with the purpose of running in under the bow of the propeller, and picking up a boat lying on the lower side of the lower pier of the Fulton Ferry slip.

The propeller, seeing the steamer thus coming danger. ously towards her, blew one whistle, which is the regulation signal to indicate that she intended to keep to the right, and those on the steamer testified that she blew two whistles, which is the regulation signal that would have indicated that she was going to the left; but the men on the propeller did not hear the two whistles, and of course gave no answering signal. Indeed, had they heard them, the men on the propeller, as it rather seemed, could not at that time have done anything to prevent the collision, situated as the propeller