In re Central R. R. of New Jersey

BROWN, District Judge.

The above petition for a limitation of liability, arose from a collision between the petitioners’ steamboat St. Johns and the steamer Catskill, which, occurred in about the middle of the North river off Fifty-Seventh street, at about 7:10 p. m. of September 15, 1897, by which the Catskill was almost immediately sunk, and became a total loss, and some of the passengers were drowned and others wounded.

Both boats were side-wheel steamers; the night was clear, or nearly so; the lime was an hour after sunset, so that it was nearly or quite dark, and both vessels had their…