Santiago

This was a libel in personam for a marine tort. The injury complained of, is the unskilfulness and negligence of the respondent Morgan, in running the ship Eliza, under his charge as a licensed pilot, on the Tonquin Shoal in this harbor. It seems that Morgan came on board the ship on the morning of the 4th January. The vessel had previously sustained considerable injury from a collision the night before, and when boarded by the pilot she was in a situation of some danger. She was, however, extricated and got under way by the pilot without any difficulty or extraordinary exertion. She commenced her course, and about dusk was run on the shoal, and sustained the damage for which this action is brought.

Much testimony was taken at the hearing which I do not think it necessary minutely to consider. It is asserted by those on board the Eliza, that the wind was free, being from the southwest; while the witnesses on the part of the respondents maintain that it was from the southeast. The course made by the vessel, from the point where she was got under way to the shoal where she struck, was not far from east southeast, and it is somewhat difficult to perceive how that course could have…