THE PLYMOUTH ROCK. - 41
and that the P. R. was also in further fault for not having stopped and backed
in time, as she might have done upon observing the course at the tug was
holding.
In Admiralty.
Wilcox, Adams at Macklin, for libelant.
William Hildreth Field, for the Plymouth Bock.
Edwin G. Davis, for the George H. Dentz.
Bnown, J. On the sixth of September, 1884, as the Plymouth
Bock was near the upper end of Blackwell’s island, in the westerly
channel, bound through Hell Gate, in the flood-tide, she observed the
steam-tug George H. Dentz, with three boats along-side, near the As-
toria ferry, on the Long Island shore, also apparently bound through
Hell Gate. She at once gave the Dentz a signal of two whistles,
which were immediately answered with a similar whistle. Both pi-
lots, as appears from the evidence, understood this signal to mean that
the Plymouth Rock should pass the Dentz on the latter’s port side.
In attempting to do so the starboard side of the Plymouth Rock came
in contact with the libelant’s boat, which was on the port side of the
Dentz, and did her some damage, for which this libel was filed. ~
The weight of evidence shows that the place of the collision was
in the easterly Hell Gate passage, not far from the Gridiron, just above
Flood rock, and between that and I·Iallett’s point. On behalf of the
Plymouth Rock, it is claimed that the steamer ran as near the Grid-
iron as safe, namely, within 20 or 25 feet of it; while the witnesses
on the part ofthe tug testify that the tug, at the time of the collis-
ion, was in mid-channel, some 350 feet from the Gridiron.
1. Both vessels must be held in fault for this collision. No place in
the harbor requires so careful navigation as the channels through
Hell Gate. Rule 8 of the board of supervising inspectors, in effect,
forbids steamers attempting to pass each other in going through Hell
Gate, in either direction. It provides that "when they shall have
arrived abreast of the north end of Blackwell’s island, the steamer
on the right or starboard hand of the other shall have the right of
way, and the steamer on the left or port side of the other shall check
her way and drop aste*rn." The tide in that vicinity runs about six
miles an hour; the Plymouth Bock was, therefore, making by land
about 16 miles per hour, and the Dentz about 9 miles. I ind,
therefore, that when the whistles were exchanged, the Dentz was not
far from Astoria ferry, as located bythe Plymouth Rock. She there-
fore had the right of way, and the Plymouth Rock, by the inspectors’
rule, was bound to keep astern until the Dentz had passed through
this dangerous passage. As the signal exchanged between the two
was understood by both, it amounted to an assent on the part of both
to depart from the inspectors’ rule. As this rule had the force of a
statute, (Thc B. B. Saunders, 19 Fed. Rep. 118,) it was binding upon
both, and each must be held in fault for the collision which ensued
through violating it; unless there were other faults of the one or the