Henry Billings Brown

“ There is no such manifest inconsistency between the findings of the circuit court in this particular as to require us to reject either of them. Both of them may be true; and when it comes to fixing the time exactly to the minute, there is always a liability to error. ”

“ We cannot say that these findings exhibit any fault on the part of the steamship in this particular. She was clearly not bound to stop solely on account of the fog, and, if she had been running dead slow for four or five minutes before the collision, she cannot be held in fault for what her previous speed may have been. If she ran 20 miles an hour down to the Narrows, and was running dead slow at the time she first heard the tug's whistle, fault could not be imputed to her for her previous speed. ”

“ No case has ever held that a steamer is obliged to stop at the first signal heard by her, unless its proximity be such as to indicate immediate danger. The next signal denoted that the tug was coming down on the starboard bow of the steamer, and as she came in sight almost immediately thereafter, only a few hundred feet off, and there was nothing to indicate the presence of a tow, the steamer was in no fault for proceeding, and as a matter of fact she passed the tug in safety. ”