9. Obstructions to Navigation.—
Anchored vessels, like wharves, piers and the like, may constitute serious obstructions to navigation but this does not give others the right to run them down. Approaching vessels are still bound to use ordinary care and skill to avoid them. It is the duty of a ship under way, whether the vessel at anchor be properly or improperly anchored, to avoid, if it be possible with safety to herself, any collision whatever, and the courts have frequently held that even if a ship is brought up in the fairway of a river, if the other could with ordinary care have avoided her, the latter will be held solely to blame. In the case of the Future City, 184 U. S. 247, a tug and tow descending the Mississippi River at New Orleans, upon rounding a point came in collision with several battleships of the United States Navy, anchored in line on swinging chains. It appeared that they had taken up these berths in the fairway for descending vessels contrary to the usage of the port and against the advice of the Board of Harbor Masters, who, however, had no authority over naval vessels. There was abundance of good anchorage elsewhere in the harbor. The Supreme Court held the Government liable for the negligent anchoring of the naval vessels and that the tug was not guilty of contributory negligence in being unable, after rounding the point, to check the headway which the current of the river imparted to the tow.
The Court quoted with approval the language of Spencer on Marine Collisions:
It is negligence for a vessel to moor so near the entrance to a harbor that shipping, entering in stress of weather, is liable to become embarrassed by its presence; and where the usual difficulties of navigation make the entrance to a harbor a dangerous undertaking, it is especially reprehensible for a vessel to moor in a situation tending to increase these difficulties.
Where a vessel is at anchor in a proper place, and is observant of the precaution required by law, it is not liable for damages sustained by a vessel in motion colliding with it, but where it anchors in an unlawful position, or fails to observe the statutory requirements and such other precautions as good seamanship would suggest, it must suffer the consequences attending a violation of the law.
In cases like these, the admiralty is inclined to follow the rule of the famous donkey case (Davies v. Mann., 10 M. & W. 546), where the owner of the animal had fettered its forefeet and, in that helpless condition turned it into a narrow highway; then the defendant's wagon came along very fast and carelessly and the donkey was crushed; the defendant had to pay for it because, if the driver of the wagon had been decently careful, the consequences of the negligence of the owner of the donkey would have been averted. Any vessel not "under way," as when aground, moored, or at a wharf, is in the position of anchored vessel and subject to similar rights and liabilities.
CHAPTER XVII
ADMIRALTY REMEDIES
One of the reasons for the continued vitality of the admiralty lies in the efficiency of the remedies which it affords. If it were not for these it is quite possible that it would long since have been absorbed by the common law as was the law merchant many years ago. Parties having rights to enforce will usually resort to the admiralty in preference to any other court if the selection is open to them. This is not so much by reason of any difference in the law as in the methods of its application. Admiralty remedies may be divided into proceedings, in rem, in personam, and under the Limited Liability Act.