The Leopard
District Court, D. Massachusetts
Libel by the owners of the schooner Brutus against the steamer Leopard for damages, propounded that the schooner, loaded with sand, was coming up Fort Point channel, in the harbor of Boston, at eleven o’clock at night, on the second day of September, 1872,-head-ing about south-westerly, with a light northwesterly wind, not enough to give her steerage way, when she was run into and instantly sunk by the steamer.
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Libel by the owners of the schooner Brutus against the steamer Leopard for damages, propounded that the schooner, loaded with sand, was coming up Fort Point channel, in the harbor of Boston, at eleven o’clock at night, on the second day of September, 1872,-head-ing about south-westerly, with a light northwesterly wind, not enough to give her steerage way, when she was run into and instantly sunk by the steamer. The answer of the master, who was the claimant of the steamer, set up that she was coming down the harbor in order to proceed to sea, and was making only about three knots an hour;…
1Opinion of the Court
LOIVELL, District Judge.
The case turns on the conduct of the schooner; because the night was fine, both vessels were easily to be seen, and were seen. The steamer was bound to avoid the schooner, and cannot excuse her failure to avoid her, except by showing some fault of omission or commission on the schooner’s part, which either misled the steamer, or frustrated her manoeuvres, or prevented the schooner being seen soon enough. The charges are, that the schooner changed her course, and that she showed no torch. The' former is denied; the latter is admitted, but it is denied that any ill…
2Cited by5 opinions
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- The Isaac BellDistrict Court, S.D. New York · 1881
- Philadelphia & Reading R. Co. v. Warren Foundry & Machine Co.U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts · 1883
- Brainard v. Steamer NarragansettDistrict Court, D. Connecticut · 1880