Union Oil Co. of Cal. v. the San Jacinto

*147Mr. Justice Stewart, with whom Mr. Justice Douglas and Mr. Justice Brennan join,

dissenting.

On a misty Christmas Eve the petitioner’s oil tanker— the Santa Maria — was moving upstream along the Oregon side of the channel of the Columbia River. The vessel was proceeding at half speed with forward visibility of one and a half to two miles. Both visually and by radap, the tanker’s pilot sighted the respondent tug, the San Jacinto, which was moving downstream along the Washington side of the channel more than a mile ahead. The tug, with a heavily laden barge in tow, disappeared from sight into a…