Neptune hauling on the hawser at right angles to the vessel.  Between then and 2244 hours the ship's engines were maneuvered at various speeds.  At 2214 hours the engines were put full astern and at that moment the two remaining lines were cast off.  It was during these maneuvers between 2208 and 2214 hours that the port shell plating of the Del Sud, just forward of the point where the curvature of the hull begins at No. 2 hold, rolled in contact with the concrete facing of the dock.  This was in accordance with the plan followed by the Del Sud and her sister ship on many previous occasions on departing from Santos.  The fracture resulted because the drip pad lip, from thepeculiar combination of water level draft and trim, happened momentarily to take the full force of the vessel as she was rolling against the concrete dock.


6
It is now certain that as the Del Sud left the Port of Santos she bore an open wound in a cargo space.  She was, therefore, unseaworthy in fact.  The shipowner contends that this unseaworthiness was caused, and therefore excused, by a Section 4 act or error in the management or navigation of the vessel.  Cargo does not really dispute this.  For Cargo agrees that, unlike the former days of the Harter Act when its Section 3 (46 U.S.C.A. 192) error in management exception was confined to events occurring after the commencement of the voyage.  The Newport, 1925,