Bunge Corporation, Cross-Appellee v. American Commercial Barge Line Company and American Commercial Lines, Inc., Cross-Appellants

I

PELL, Circuit Judge.

This is an action in admiralty. On June 13, 19.74, a flotilla of nineteen loaded coal barges in tow of vessels owned by the defendant American Commercial Lines, Inc., collided with a grain handling facility in Cairo, Illinois, owned by plaintiff Bunge Corporation (Bunge).

The damaged structure was composed of a grain conveyor and supporting trestle on four towers. The first of these towers, which supported the trestle over the river, was constructed of four twelve inch diameter pipe pilings and extended approximately seventy feet above the river bottom. The pilings were…