OUR LONDON LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 3976, 22 November 1875, Page 3

OUR LONDON LETTER.

September 10. The past month has been occupied by the Inquiries of a court-martial respecting the loss of the Vanguard, and the result has just been published. Brit fly told the circumstances of the case amount to this. The four ironclads were steaming southward some seven knots an hour, one following in the wake of the &■ her, When the admiral, who was on board the leading ship, gave the order to hum “column in line ahead,” in obedience to which the Yan guard, which was the third ship, and the L n Duke, which was the fourth, diverged to the left to form the separate lim-. As this evolution was being executed a fog came on. emu pletely obsc ring each ve-sel fr m the other N'owit se. Ms that t he ulniir.dty instructions for such c ises aie cont adictmy, m e) ule prescriMng a low rate of speed, an I another enjoining the various captains in a fleet to abid> by such instructions as 'hey migi.t receive from the admiral. Here I may remark par nthetic.dty that Adm ral Tail, tun, when under exainina

tion, stiite.il that he relied m ow each * n.ptnii! acting upon his own fii-cret:on, qualifying th:u statemen r , however, by adding that he i-xp ct p d the captain of each leading ship to do what he thought best, and give instructions to the following ship accordingly. in fhi s position therefore, when the fog was repor ed to Capt Dawkins of th* Vanguard, he reduced his speed to six, and afterwards to five knots. •B\ way of communicating this fact, to the Iron Duke he “sounded his pennants” by tin steam whistle, which was then kept lor some seconds at, full blast. Here it should he understood that there is a distinct, sound-signal to in iidte reduced or ace leraten speed ; but at the moment when required no one knew what it was, and so the wh atle was simply kept blowing. At tip’s conjuncture a large sailing vessel was descried crossing the bows of the v 'angua d, which, to save collision, starboarded her helm and turned off to the left, at the same time stopping her etigm"s for a few seconds. In this situation the Iron Duke sud denly appeared out of the fog about forty or

fifty ya ds off, steaming some eight knots, and bearing down on the Vanguard almost at right angles. Orders were immediately given on board to the Iron to reveise en in* s, de spite which she crashed iiPo the Vanguard with a foice calculated at 10,000 tons. To make the narrative cl ar I must now go back to what had hap ened on board the Iron Duke. On her envelopment in the fog the lieutenant in charge of her deemed it suf-r to diverge slightly to the left of the prescribed course, so t at the ship might miss the Vanguard in case of over uking her. The captain, however, when sumuione on deck, disapm overt of this step, an I directed a slant in the opposite direction by- way of getting into exact 1 ir again ; and wMi the view of picking up any 10.-t ground, he ordered the speed to he increased to 8j knots. When under examination he stated tha: lie considered hitnseif ound t.. obey die orders he hail received from the ad miral, and continued his speed umil the new forma ion of the squadron was completed; though, when that was effected, he cmainl. expe .ted to receive dir ctions to reduce speed by reason of the fog. It is stated that the whistle of the Vanguard was heard one.-, but that it presented only a confused sound. The whistle of the Iron Duke,’ho.vever, was not sounded at ad. The man in charge of it tried three times to sound it, but 0.-ulu not, as he steam was not tinned on. Fiom this circumstance ( aptai i Dawkins con eluded that the Iron Duke -as out of earshot, an i that she had probably also reduced speed! He e, then, aie the causes of the di-aster ; contradictory instruction* to start with ; one captain conceiving himself bound by one sir, and the oh r ■ aptain b> another set; every officer, in fact, forming original ideas of his duty, ami (with the best intentions) doing that which seemed right in his own eyis. however, it is necessary to leave these melancholy r. flections and proceed wi hj the uanativc. Ihe Van guard, like all our iron ships, is built, in compartments, wi hj the view of rendering nugatory the effects of a col ision. There were op. nings in these to allow of necessary communication, each opening being fitted with a water tight door to be closed in speh emergencies Immediate m tiers were given to shut ail these partitions, but to effect It a tool called “ a spanner ” was requis te in each instance, and it seems there was on y one spanner on board the ship. An invaluable five minutes was thus w isted. and the opportunity lost of preventing the water getting to the boiler fires. Added to this, it ha;u ened, most, unfortunately, that the point of collision was at the * xact spot where one of the bulk heads traversed the compartments were stove in. There was a loss of time too in getting the pumps to work, and after they had been going for about fifteen minutes Captain B wkiu<, fearing lest the ship should founder suddenly, ordered his crew to the boars. In doing this, it is satisfactory to note that perfect liscipline wa> maintained The sick were tiist embarked, and then the rest in Older ot rank—the lowed; rank firsr—and the entire crew safely transferred to the Iron Duke, which lay by and rendered ail assistance with her boats.

In Kgard to the dont-martial, its finding i« that the collision was occasioned—Firstly, by the high rate of speed at which the squadron was proceeding whilst enveloped in fog; secondly, by C-ptam i awkius having left the charge of his ship before the completion of an evolution seeing that ther.. were indications of fog at *he time; thirnly, by unnuces-ary reduction of the Vanguard’s speed without orders from the Admiral, and without the Vangu.ud mailing a proper signal to indicate reduceu speed to the following ship; fourthly, by the increase of speed on the iron Duke during a dense fog; fifthly, by the Iron Duke having improuerly steered out of line ; sixthly, by the want of any fog signal on the Iron ouke. Ic will immediately be seen how wide is the groan 1 covered by these findings. By con demiting the rate of speed of the whole fleet, the admiral in charge becomes implicated, see ing that he issued no o.deia for a leducdon. Respecting the censure on the reduced speed o> the Vanguard, it was ple-uld by Captain Dawkins that had he maintained the seven knots as ordered, he must inevitably have cut down the

merchant ship that crosse i his hows, and been responsible accordingly tor her certain de.ifcructruction ; but, as regar ;S the neglect to make a “proper*' signal to the Iron Duke the judgment certainly touch-s Inn, though indeed, from hearin; no whistle, he might t erhaps be excused tor assuming the Iron Duke to be far astern, d s regards the in croise of spe-d ot the iron Duke, her shearing out of line, and the neglect to make any fog signal whatever, there can be no doubt that these ciicurnstan es did seiiouiy con tribute to the disaster, and thcapt.iio ami ottid rs of the dup will probably also have to abide the decision of a comt martial. It ma' he doubted, however, whethei the original and most pot -nt cau-e of the accident was not the contrardictnry nature of the Admiralty in-druc turns, which, as abeady stated, in one plad prescribe a low rate 0‘ speed during n fog, ami iu another, leave tile various captains to acton the orders of the admiral. The propt r way ot meeting such cases would seem to be, to make a reduction of speed, the rule always to be ob-erved unless orders he given to the contrary. In regard to the measures adopted for pre venting the loss of the vessel, I subjoin the pjcpct words of the judgment;—

“ That the foundering of her Majesty's ship Vanguard might have been delayed, if not averted, by Caotain Dawkins giving orders for immediate action being taken to get all availab'e pumps w- rked, instead of employing his crew in hoisting out boats ; and if Captain Dawkins, Commander Tandy. Navigating Lieutenant Thomas, and \ir David Tiddy, carpenter, had shown more resource and energy in endeavoring to stop the breach from theou - side with the means at their command, such as sails and hammocks. 'I hat Captain Dawkins should have ordered Captain Hickley, of the Iron Duke, to tow the Vangum! into water. That blame is imputable to Captain Dawkins for exhibiting want of judgment, and for neglect of duty in handling his ship, and that he showed a want of resource, promptitude and decision in the means he adopted for saving the V a n-uard after the collision, " hat blame is imputable to navigating Lieutenant ■ horaas for neglect of duty in not pointing out to his captain that there was shoahr water within a short distance, and in not having offered any suggestion as to the mode of stopping the leak from the outside. That Commander 'I andy showed great want of energy as second in command under the circumstances. That Mr Brown, the chief engineer, showed want of promptitude in not applying the means at his command to relieve the ship of water. That blame is imputable to Mr David Tiddy, c mpenter, for not offering suggestion»to his captain as to the most efficient mode of stopping thehak, and for not taking immediate at-ps for s-’unding the compartments a d reporting from time to t me the progress of the water.” In accordance with this judgment Captain Dawki s has

been severely reprimanded and dismiss'd from his ship. Commander Tandy and Lieutenant 'lhomas are severely repnroa' ded, and Mr Brown and Mr Tiddy r«pr-mamled. In considering this sentence, which is certainly a severe one, it must be borne in mind thy. a good hour elapsed from the ti i e of col lision until the sinking of the ship, and that whilst she foundered in nineteen fathoms of water there was ten fathoms only two miles "ff, to which she could easily and quickly hav, been towed. _ The difference whicu thiswou d have made is enormous, as diving operations joulrl be easily conducted in the one case, whilst in the other they can be of little avail, fifteen minutes being the maximum time which ■liveis can remain below at nineteen fathom-, 'f course it is easy to be wise alter t 1 e evmt, >nd had Captain Dawkins known that be had a whole hour before him, no doubt he would have devote) all Irs energies in the first instance towards sav. mg the ship, though how far they might have been succ‘s ful there is no saying. 1 must nor., however, omit to mention an act of one of the officers which showed great presenc. of mind, ami prevented serious loss of life. Im mediately after the collision he ran into the engine-room a- d turned on ihe escape valve < t the boilers, thus allowing the st* am to escape ad ir. not been for this precaution the bode s must have burst from the sudden cooling of their plates, and death and destruction have been spread all around.