Edwards

This is an appeal from a decree holding the steamship Catalina solely liable for a collision with the motorboat Arbutus occurring in a dense fog in the traffic way between San Pedro on the California coast and Catalina Island. The only question presented by the briefed assignments of error is whether the Catalina was solely at fault.

The collision occurred at about 5 p. m. o’clock in a fog in a visibility of a distance of between 100 and 150 yards when the vessels sighted one another. The Catalina, a 1,765 gross ton passenger steamship, 301 feet long, on a trip from Catalina to San Pedro admits liability because of her -speed of fifteen knots when she sighted the Arbutus. The Catalina was unharmed, but the Arbutus was demolished.

While this admiralty appeal is a trial de novo, the presumption in favor of the findings of the District Court is at its strongest, since thei trial judge heard all the witnesses, save one, and his deposition clearly sustains those heard. The Ernest H. Meyer, 1936, 9 Cir., 84 F.2d 496, 501 ; Silver Line et al. v. United States et al., 9 Cir., 94 F.2d 754 , decided January 31, 1938.

The Catalina claims the following faults on the part of the Arbutus:…