Domira

49 F.2d 324, 1931 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1287, 1931 A.M.C. 677
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedFebruary 21, 1931
DocketNos. 10801, 10922
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 49 F.2d 324 (Domira) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Domira, 49 F.2d 324, 1931 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1287, 1931 A.M.C. 677 (E.D.N.Y. 1931).

Opinion

CAMPBELL, District Judge.

These are cross-suits to recover damages alleged to have been caused by a collision between the motor vessel Irland and the steamship Domira, in a fog, in which both vessels and the cargo of the Domira were damaged.

I find the faets as follows:

At all the times hereinafter mentioned and at the time of the trial herein A/D Det Dansk Franske Dampskibselskab was a Danish corporation and the owner of the motor-ship Irland.

At all the times hereinafter mentioned and at the time of the trial herein a British subject was the owner of the steamship 'Domira.

At all the times hereinafter mentioned and at the time of the trial herein Santa Clara Steamship Company was a British corporation and the owner of the steamship Pinar-Del Rio.

Niles-Bement-Pond Company and the other persons and corporations mentioned in the intervening petition were, at all the times hereinafter mentioned and at the time of the trial herein, the owners of the cargo of the steamship Domira; that those alleged to be corporations were corporations as alleged, and that the petitioners not incorporated have a legal status as alleged.

■During the currency of process herein, the motorship Irland, the steamship Domira, and the steamship Pinar Del Rio have been within the Eastern district of New York and the jurisdiction of this court.

The partly loaded motor vessel Irland,. gross tonnage 3,175, net tonnage 1,928, length 326.2 feet, width 50.1 feet, depth 20.8 feet, arrived from Boston on the morning of December 31, 1927, and anchored off Ambrose Light Vessel, where the weather was hazy.

At 10:27 o’clock a. m. the weather had cleared, and the Irland got under way again and moved up toward the entrance of Ambrose Channel.

About 10:45 o’clock a. m. the Irland’s engines were stopped and the pilot boat sighted.

About 11 o’clock a. m. Sandy Hook pilot Smith boarded the Irland.

At that time the weather was clear, wind south, tide flood, and the Irland entered the Ambrose Channel and proceeded up on her starboard side. She passed buoy 8-A close aboard to starboard.

The fog shut in thick, visibility was reduced to 600 feet, and fog signals were being sounded by the Irland at regular intervals of one-half minute.

The Irland proceeded at various speeds until she was in the vicinity of buoy 10, when [326]*326a fog signal was heard from a steamship ahead, which proved to be the Steel Inventor, and at 11:46 o’clock a. m. the Irland stopped her engines.

At 11:47 o’clock a. m. the Irland’s engines were put slow ahead again, and she rounded buoy 10 under a port helm on her starboard hand about 200 feet off. The Ir-land then proceeded up the channel. and rounded buoy 14 under a port helm on her starboard hand about 2p0 feet off, and started on a course north magnetic at slow speed.

The set of the tide was to the Irland’s port, and the Irland was put on the course north instead of the usual channel course from buoy 14 of north % west to compensate for any tidal set to port.

The steamship Pinar Del Rio, gross tonnage 3,066, net tonnage 1,830, length 321.1 feet, breadth 46.7 feet, depth 23.2 feet, which was outward bound, had been at anchor at the northern entrance to the channel to the eastward of buoy 18 for over 24 hours, on account of the dense fog.

She got under way just before noon on December 31, 1927, proceeded across the channel, and steadied until she had buoy 17) close to which she passed, on her starboard hand about 100 feet off.

The pilot and master of the Pinar Del Rio had thought it was going to clear when she got under way, but it shut down quite thick when she passed buoy 17, and the visibility was exceedingly short.

After passing buoy 17, the Pinar Del Rio headed down the channel on what was intended to be the channel course at slow speed, but passed buoy 15 slightly to the westward' on her port hand, about 15 or 20 feet off, passing between buoy 15 and the spar marking buoy.

After the stern of the Pinar Del Rio cleared the buoy, she headed around southeast to get further out in the channel, and proceeded diagonally across the channel at slow speed.

At 7:30 o’clock p. m. on December 30, 1927, the steamship Domira, gross tonnage 3,852, net tonnage 2,412, length 352.3 feet, breadth 50.0 feet, depth 24.7 feet, left the pier at Twentieth street, East River, loaded with cargo outward bound.

The fog became very thick, and at 7:45 o’clock p. m. she anchored just above the pier.

About 10:15 o’clock p. m. she again got under way and proceeded down to the anchorage at the upper end of the Statue of Liberty and anchored there about midnight.

At about 9:30 o’clock a. m. on December 31, 1927, the Domira again got under way and proceeded down to Gravesend Bay, where she anchored.

At 11:47 o’clock a. m. the Domira time (as were the times of her movements formerly enumerated), the weather was clear, visibility 1%. miles, the Domira again got under way and proceeded to pass Craven Shoal to starboard and then down the channel, passing buoy 17 to starboard; the visibility was then 600 feet.

The course of the Domira is not definitely established, but she was on her starboard the west side of the channel.

The several vessels mentioned then proceeded as follows:

The Irland proceeded at slow speed on course north magnetic, sounding regulation fog signals, and a fog signal was heard from a vessel ahead, which later proved to be the Pinar Del Rio. . The engines of the Irland were stopped immediately, and she ported her helin.

Shortly afterward the Pinar Del Rio was sighted ahead, on about the course she had been put on after rounding buoy 15, crossing the channel diagonally from the Irland’s port to her starboard side.

A two-blast passing signal was blown by the Pinar Del Rio to the Irland, which was answered by the Irland with a two-blast signal, and she starboarded her helm so as to pass starboard to starboard as agreed by said signals.

The Domira then appeared out of the fog, moving faster and somewhat to the south of the Pinar Del Rio, which she was following close astern, but with the Domira on the Pinar Del Rio’s starboard quarter crossing the channel diagonally from the westerly to the easterly side.

The Domira was not on the same course as when she passed buoy 17, but was following and overtaking the Pinar Del Rio - on what appeared to be nearly a parallel course, but on the Pinar Del Rio’s starboard side.

The danger of collision was obvious, and the Irland immediately put her engines full speed astern, sounded three blasts of her whistle, and let go both anchors.

The Domira was coming on with greater speed than either the Pinar Del Rio or the Irland, and when she sighted the Irland she stopped, put her engines astern, sounded [327]*327three blasts, and after the pilot on the Pinar Del Rio had sung out to the Domira to let go her anchor, she did let go her port anchor.

The Domira’s way was not stopped, and she came on across the bow of the Irland, the starboard side of the Domira coming into contact with and twisting the stem of the Irland to starboard, at 12:12 o’clock p. m. Irland's time.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
49 F.2d 324, 1931 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1287, 1931 A.M.C. 677, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/domira-nyed-1931.