Edward Terry Sanford

“ We agree with the view of both the lower courts that the collision was caused solely by the negligence of the Thoroughfare, which not only approached the passageway in the rear of the Enterprise at full speed, without knowing whether she would encounter any vessel on the other side, but needlessly commenced the execution of the passing movement with the Union before she had cleared the Enterprise ”

“ The channel of the Estuary, the great artery of commerce between San Francisco and Oakland, is 500 feet wide. The collision occurred about noon, on a clear day. The Enterprise, a steam freighter 320 feet long, which was undergoing repairs at the yard of the Moore Shipbuilding Company on the north bank of the Estuary, was let down stern foremost on a marine railway into the waters of the Estuary, and lay at right angles across the channel. ”

“ These two suits in admiralty, which were brought in the federal court for northern California, arose out of a collision between the ferryboat Thoroughfare and the steamship Enterprise in charge of the tug Relief, in the channel of San Antonio Creek, known as the Oakland Estuary, which resulted in damages to the Thoroughfare and the Enterprise, and the killing of Ernest Haglund, a workman on the Enterprise. ”