Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/811

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

804 FEDERAL REPORTER. �Ahout midday on the 26th, the bolts having again worked loose, the ship was hove to and the bolts taken out. They were fOund to be worn and the holes enlarged; Attempts were made to remedy the trouble by lining the holea and driving the bolts up tight, but,.upon starting the ship again and finding that the bolts did not remain tight, the engineer reported that it was not safe to proceed on the voyage. The ship was headed for St. Michaels, in the Azores, where she arrived on the 31st. Eep.airs to the bolts and boit holes were at once made, working night and day, and the ves- sel was in condition to start again on her voyage on the third of September. She had the usual voyage from St. Michaels to Baltimore, arriving on the sixteenth of Septem- ber, and was ready to receive her grain cargo on the 18th, having been delayed in ail about seven days by reason of the accident and repairs. The charterers had engaged the steamer to carry a cargo of grain, which they were under con- tract to load during the iirst half of Septembei*, and as she was not ready to load within the time speoified they refused to accept her, upon the ground that she was not delayed by accident to her maohinery within the meaning of the excep- tion in the charter-party; and they now allege, in defence to this action, that the steamer was not seaworthy or fitted for the voyage when she started from Newport; that no exam- ination of her machinery was' made before she started ou the voyage, and that very soon after she started parts of her machinery were found to be loose aijd out of order in partio- ulars which could easily bave been discovered and rectified if proper examination had been made and proper precautions taken before she started ; and that the failure of the steamer to arrive in Baltimore in time to load during the first half of September was caused either by the condition of her machinery before she started on the voyage, or by the want of proper care, watchfulness, and skill during the voyage. �The bolts, the loosening of which disabled the steaiûer, are the pins which connect the sections of the shaft which oper- ates the screw. It is a heavy shaft, made in three sections, which t>.re coupled together by coUars welded to each end, ����