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CHAPTER XII

THE STEERING AND SAILING RULES

125-127. Origin, Reasons on Which Based, and General Application.

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ORIGIN, REASONS ON WHICH BASED, AND GENERAL APPLICATION

125. Rules of navigation are the outgrowth of customs. 126. They are evolved from the comparative ease of handling different types of vessels, the rule of turn to the right, and the question whether there is risk of collision.

127. They regulate the relations of sail to sail, steam to steam, and steam to sail.

The fourth part of the navigation rules is the most important of all. It contains the steering and sailing rules, and prescribes the course which approaching vessels must take to avoid each other in every conceivable situation, and the signals to be given to indicate their respective intentions.

These rules, in the main, are not new. They are largely affirmations of previous maritime customs, crystallized at last into positive enactments.

Reasons on Which Based

There are three underlying principles from which they are derived, for they are based on reason, and any one

fixing firmly in his mind the reasons which gave them birth can, if gifted with a moderate knowledge of navigation and ship construction, think them out for himself.

(1) The first of these principles is that the less manageable type of vessel is privileged as regards the more manageable, and the latter has the burden of avoiding her. For example, sailing vessels are favored as against steamers, anchored vessels as against moving vessels, and vessels closehauled as against vessels with a free wind.

(2) Other things being equal, the rule of the road at sea is the same as on land; and the endeavor of these navigation rules is to make vessels, wherever possible, always pass to the right, like two vehicles on a public road.

(3) The rules are only intended to apply when vessels. are approaching each other in such directions "as to involve risk of collision." A detailed examination of the rules will show that this qualifying phrase is embodied in nearly every one of them. The mere fact that vessels are in sight of, or near, each other, navigating the same waters, does not bring these enactments into play. If their courses are parallel, and sufficiently far apart to clear with a safe margin, or if they are divergent, there is no need for rules of navigation, just as there is no need for rules of construction when the language is too plain to need construction. Risk of Collision

In the language of Justice Clifford in the Dexter,1 the rules are obligatory if the vessels are approaching in such directions as involve risk of collision on account of their proximity from the time the necessity for precaution begins.

In the Milwaukee, it is said: "Risk of collision begins the very moment when the two vessels have approached

§§ 125-127. 123 Wall. 69, 23 L. Ed. 84.

21 Brown, Adm. 313, Fed. Cas. No. 9,626. See, also, Philadelphia (D. C.) 199 Fed. 299, affirmed 207 Fed. 936, 125 C. C. A. 384. There is no risk of collision when the vessels have reached an understand

so near each other, and upon such courses, that, by departure from the rules of navigation, whether from want of good seamanship, accident, mistake, misapprehension of signals, or otherwise, a collision might be brought about. It is true that prima facie each man has a right to assume that the other will obey the law. But this does not justify either in shutting his eyes to what the other may actually do, or in omitting to do what he can to avoid an accident made imminent by the acts of the other. I say the right above spoken of is prima facie merely, because it is well known that departure from the law not only may, but does, take place, and often. Risk of collision may be said to begin the moment the two vessels have approached each other so near that a collision might be brought about by any such departure, and continues up to the moment when they have so far progressed that no such result can ensue."

The preliminary to the steering rules gives one test by which to determine whether risk of collision exists. It is that the compass bearing of the approaching vessel does not change. If their courses are parallel, a sharp angle at a distance becomes larger as they approach, and, conversely, if the angle remains constant, their courses must be converging.

SAIL VESSELS

128. Which of two sailing vessels approaching each other so as to involve risk of collision must keep out of the way of the other is determined by their respective courses and situations, with reference to the direction of the wind and their relative positions.

ing by signals, or are moving on courses that would take them clear by a safe margin. Lake Erie Transp. Co. v. Gilchrist Transp. Co., 142 Fed. 89, 73 C. C. A. 313; Libra, 6 P. D. 139.

3 George W. Roby, 111 Fed. 601, 49 C. C. A. 481; President Lincoln, [1911] P. 248.

Sail vessels approaching each other so as to involve risk of collision regulate their movements as follows:

(a) A vessel which is running free shall keep out of the way of a vessel which is closehauled.

This is because she is more manageable. The wind is free when the vessel could shape her course still further to windward. Thus:

A

Wind

B

A must keep out of the way of B.1

(b) A vessel which is closehauled on the port tack shall keep out of the way of a vessel which is closehauled on the starboard tack. When a vessel is on the port tack, her sails swing over the starboard side, the wind being on her port side, and vice versa. Hence this rule is based on the principle of turn to the right. The vessel closehauled on the starboard tack cannot turn to the right, as the wind is on that side; therefore the other one must. Thus:

B

Wind

A

§ 128.

4 William Churchill (D. C.) 103 Fed. 690; Metamora, 144 Fed. 936, 75 C. C. A. 576; Martha E. Wallace (D. C.) 148 Fed. 94.

A must keep out of the way.

(c) When both are running free, with the wind on different sides, the vessel which has the wind on the port side shall keep out of the way of the other. This also springs from, the rule of turn to the right. Thus:

A

B

016

A must keep out of the way, because the wind facilitates her porting or turning to the right, and interferes with the other's doing it."

We will see later on that, with two steamers as in the diagram, the rule is the opposite. B then keeps out of the way, which she can do by porting, and passing astern, as a steamer is independent of the wind.

(d) When both are running free with the wind on the same side, the vessel which is to the windward shall keep out of the way of the vessel which is to the leeward. Thus:

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5 Ada A. Kennedy (D. C.) 33 Fed. 623; Margaret B. Roper (D. C.) 103 Fed. 886; Id., 111 Fed. 623, 49 C. C. A. 503; Mary Buhne, 118 Fed. 1000, 55 C. C. A. 494.

• Rolf, 47 Fed. 220; Id., 50 Fed. 478, 1 C. C. A. 534; Grace Seymour (D. C.) 63 Fed. 163.

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