INGA. under command: and the master of any steam vessel navigating any river or narrow channel shall keep as far as is practicable to that side of the fair-way or midchannel thereof which lies on the starboard side of each vessel." This rule applies to all vessels without distinction, whether impelled by steam or by sails. Each vessel is to port her helm; the only exception being when by so doing she would be brought into danger, or if a sailing vessel the command over her will be lost. This it is evident is only the old rule and reasoning thrown into a general form and made applicable to all cases. The 296th and 297th sections of the British Shipping Act, which was passed on the 10th August, 1854, and came into force on the 1st May last (17 & 18 Vict. c. 104) contains the following enactment on this subject: "Whenever any ship, whether a steam or sailing ship, proceeding in one direction, meets another ship, whether a steam or sailing ship, proceeding in another direction, so that if both ships were to continue their respective courses they would pass so near as to involve any risk of a collision, the helms of both ships shall be put to port so as to pass on the port side of each other; and this rule shall be obeyed by all steamships and by all sailing ships, whether on the port or starboard tack, and whether close-hauled or not, unless the circumstances of the case are such as to render a departure from the rule necessary in order to avoid immediate danger, and subject also to the proviso that due regard shall be had to the dangers of navigation, and, as regards sailing ships on the starboard tack close hauled, to the keeping such ships under command. "Every steam ship, when navigating any narrow channel shall, whenever it is safe and practicable, keep to that side of the fair-way or mid-channel, which lies on the starboard side of such steamship." The rules here given are in substance precisely the same as before, though given in other language, and more general and perhaps more definite terms. The rule is as before, that each vessel shall port her helm, unless she would incur danger by so doing, or the command over her would be lost. The British and the Canadian rules are therefore the same, and though that portion of them which relates to the meeting of steamers and sailing vessels does not appear to have been formally enacted in direct words until recently; yet, as we have seen, it has been always recognised and adopted as reasonable and as consistent with the long established rules of navigation. The same rule seems to prevail in the United States, except that as appears in the case of the Osprey, and the cases therein referred to, our neighbours incline to give greater extent to that portion of the old British rule which favours the vessel which would be most inconvenienced by porting her helm, and to hold that as a steamer has greater command over her motions than a sailing vessel with a fair wind, she ought to give way to such sailing vessel; and that the latter ought to keep her course without porting her helm, leaving the duty of turning aside so as to avoid the collision solely to the steamer. I am not called upon to decide whether the English or the American interpretation of the old rule would be the best to adopt; first, because the Canadian and English rule must prevail in our waters; and secondly, because in the case before me the Inga did not keep her course, but starboarded her helm. The English rule has, however, the advantage of being more certain, and more easily remembered; and it does appear to me that there must be less danger of collision, and that the vessels can get out of each other's way in less time if both draw to starboard, by porting their helms, than if one stands still, and throws the whole burthen of the movement upon the other. INGA. INGA. I think, then, that in the present case each vessel was bound to put her helm to port, unless there were some peculiar circumstances in the case which made it dangerous so to do, or rendered a deviation from the rule necessary or justifiable. Now, it appears that both the Inga and the steamer were perfectly under command, each had sufficient way to make her obey her helm immediately. By the evidence of the Inga's own people it would seem that she was, if at all, very little to the starboard side of the steamer and her tow; so little indeed that the master of the Inga himself admits that it was necessary to starboard the Inga's helm in order to get sufficiently out of the line of the steamer and her tow, to enable them to pass safely on the starboard side. On the other hand it is denied by the witnesses for the Universe that the Inga was at all to the southward; and it is certain, from what took place, that if the Inga had ported her helm, or even perhaps if she had continued in her course the collision would have been avoided; for, the Inga's people say that her helm was starboarded about two minutes before the collision, and in two minutes she must clearly have run more than half the length of the Universe to the southward; and if she had been half the length of the Universe less to the southward than she was at the time of the collision, it is equally clear that she would not have struck that ship; and if she had ported her helm she would have gone to the northward, and been still further out of danger: and even if the collision would not have been avoided the Inga would not have been in default, and would not have been responsible for the consequences. The case is not one of a sudden rencontre where there is no time for consideration; the vessels were undoubtedly seen by each other, at least ten minutes before they met (e). Neither is it a (e) See the case of the General Steam Navigation Company . case where there was any danger to either in obeying the Stuart and Vannovous, for Universe. Mann, tried before Sir Frederick Exchequer, at the Summer As- INGA. JOHN COUNTER. Friday, 13th July, 1855. JOHN COUNTER-MILLER. COLLISION.-Liability of a steam-boat for collision between vessels one of which is towed by the steam-boat. This case involved the question of the liability of a steamboat towing a vessel, for damage and injuries caused by the vessel in tow coming in collision with another vessel. The facts will be found stated in the following opinion of the Court. JUDGMENT.-Hon. Henry Black. On the 22nd September last, the brig William Wilberforce, was lying at anchor on the ballast ground in the harbour of Quebec, well over to the north side of that place, and about the middle of the channel of the River St. Lawrence. A barque was at the same time lying at the ballast ground about two cables' length to the northward, or towards the Quebec shore, and a little lower down the river or astern of the brig. The wind was light from the south-west or down the river; and the tide was ebbing at the rate of about four miles an hour. At about two o'clock in the afternoon the steamer John Counter, belonging to the Wolfe Island Railroad and Canal Company, on her way from Montreal with the barges Onward and Utility in tow, rounded Pointe à Pizeau, and came in sight of the brig. From the evidence both of the pilot and master of the steamer, and of the people of the barges, it appears that they saw the |