Damages are claimed in this case by the owners of the canal-boat Floating Battery, against the steamboat Cayuga, in a cause of tort civil and maritime, for the loss of the canalboat and her cargo, consisting of two hundred and twenty-five tons of moulding sand, which the libellants had engaged to transport from the port of Albany and to deliver in the city of New York to certain consignees.
Employed as the steamboat was in towing boats and barges between those ports, the owners of the canal-boat, on the twenty-fifth of May, 1867, applied to the agent of the steamboat to take the canal-boat in tow, and he undertook and contracted to tow the canal-boat, as requested, to her port of destination; and it is alleged that the steamboat, in the evening of that day, took the canal-boat, with other boats and barges, in tow, and proceeded down the river in execution of the contract. Besides the canal-boat of the libellants the steamboat had twenty-nine other canal-boats in tow, and two barges, the canal-boats being arranged in six tiers of five boats each, the canal-boat of the libellants being the starboard boat of the hindmost tier, and nearest to the west shore. By the record it appears that the whole six tiers of canal-boats were towed by hawsers from the stern of the steamboat extending aft from eighty to one hundred fathoms, which were fastened to the foremost tier of the canal-boats, showing that the canal-boat of the libellants was more than a thousand feet astern of the steamboat when the whole were in motion, as the canal-boats are about a hundred feet in length. All the canal-boats except the first tier were propelled by lines from the stern of the canal-boat immediately ahead, and they were kept in their places by breastlines. Arranged as described the steamboat with her tow, including also two barges of a larger class than the canal-boats, and propelled by long hawsers extending aft from the stern of the steamboat a distance of a hundred and fifty feet further than the last tier of the canal-boats, proceeded down the river; but it appears that the canal-boat of the libellants was brought in contact, during the first night of the trip, with a lighthouse in the river, with such force that her lines parted and she was separated for a time from the other canal-boats of her tier. Prompt measures were adopted to pick her up, and she was soon, by the aid of another steamer, replaced in her former position as the starboard canal-boat in the sixth tier of the tow. Prior to that accident the evidence is clear and undisputed that the canal-boat of the libellants was stanch, tight, and in every respect in good condition, but she received some injuries by the collision, causing her to leak a little, making it necessary to use her pump, say for an hour once in twenty-four hours, showing that she was still seaworthy and not disabled. On the morning of the third day of the trip, about half-past twelve o'clock, as the steamboat, with her thirty canal-boats and two barges in tow, was rounding West Point, the canal-boat of the libellants struck some object in the water, her starboard side coming in contract with it with such force as to throw her master from his berth, in which he was lying, and to cause the boat to careen and strike the boat on her port side, sending the latter against the next boat in the same tier with great violence. Injuries of a very serious character were occasioned by the accident to the canal-boat of the libellants. Her planks below the water-line on the starboard side were broken to such an extent that she filled with water with such rapidity as to prevent the master and bowman from securing their clothing, which was below, and to cause the canal-boat with her cargo on board to sink in two or three minutes. Process was issued and served and the respondents appeared and filed an answer. Testimony was taken, and the District Court entered a decretal order in favor of the libellants and referred the cause to a commissioner to compute the amount of the damages. Hearing was had before the commissioner and he reported that the damages amounted to $2329.92.