WRECK ENQUIRY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 197, 21 August 1877, Page 2

WRECK ENQUIRY.

[Before L. Broad, Esq., 8.M., and Capt. Johnston, Nautical Assessor.] YESTERDAY. The following evidence was tsken after our reporter left: — Oscar Frank, seaman: I was steering on Monday night from eight to ten. The light was in sight when I went to the wheel, and I should think we were five or six miles from it at ten. I heard the surf from about nine. I was aloft about ten minutes before the vessel struck, and saw breakers on the starboard bow. They appeared to be about two miles off. I had no time to tell the officer, but I mentioned it to my mates, and immediately afterwards she struck. By Captain Johnston: The course given me at eight was N.E. by E., and was altered after that about every quarter of an hour I could not see land when I left the wheel, but I could hear the surf. John Price, seaman : I was steering from ten until the vessel struck. She was going S.S.E. Avhen she struck. I saw the red light about twenty minutes before she struck I don't know whether the chief officer was on deck when I first saw it. I saw it plainly and supposed that any one else could have done so. John Willis, seaman : I left the wreck in the cutter. Both boata were made fast by painters to the ship. The lifeboat would have held more people than she had on board. Seeing that there were only two boys and a stowaway in her, and that she was beginuing to jump about, I took charge. I don't know who cast us off. I took the steer-oar, and told the boys to take fche other oars and keep us as close as possible to the ship. She went bodily to leeward all the time. There was smooth water for about fifty yards from the ship, but a breeze came, and though I tried all I could to get back, we could not do it. If we had had the proper complement of men on board we could have done so easily. We had only three oars, no rudder, and no sails, although she is intended to have both. Mr Baillie and the second mate helped to get the boats out. The captain or chief officer could have detained the boat if they chose. I heard the captain order a bag of bread to be thrown out of the lifeboat to make room All we had on board for 21 of us was three httle tins of meat, three biscuits I had in my pocket, and a bottle of water. I think Frank put the meat in. I saw no signals to us to come back, and if I had we could not have obeyed them. It might have been of use to send the gig properly manned to our assistance, but she was a very small boat. By Mr Pitt: The boys were between 18 and 20. We could have pulled five oars if we had them in the boat. The boat got half full of water several times. We kept near the lifeboat as well as we could, but the breeze freshened, and we had to run before it. The Court then adjourned until 10 a.m. THIS DAY. Edward Williamson, seaman : I came away in the lifeboat. I told the captain we had no provisions in the boat, and he said we should only have to pull four or five miles. He told me to go in the lifeboat;, and as he said nothiug about officers I took charge. A man named Cottem cast us off, and Martin Wardrope drew the painter in. We were told by the captain to keep in smooth water. It took us all our time to keep under the lee of the ship. The tide was at top of flood, and running to the eastward, and the wiad was westerly. When we were cast off we went to leeward. I thought the smooth water the captain meant was under the laud. Nothing was put on board by order of the captain We had two bottles of water, four tins of meat, and a bag of bread. The captain said, " What have you got in the stern of the boat ?" Wardrope replied, " Abag of bread " The captain said, " Heave it overboard • you have not far to go to the shore." ' By Mr Pitt : When I went into the boat with the ladies I saw no. provisions on the poop or on the main deck. Aitev we had the ladies in the boat I pulled up to the ship to ask the captain if we should take auy more passengers. This was after wo were cast off I saw no signals on board to us to come back If I had we would have tried to return. The captain told us to take the bread out of the way of the ladies, as it took up too much room. The captain told us to take some passengers from the cutter. Martin Wardrope, seaman : I came away in the lifeboat. Williams assumed charge of her. When we first left the ship we were not full up with passengers. The captain told us to lay off and let the cutter come alongside to take in passengers. The captain gave orders to a man to cast off the painter. We returned to the ship and Williams asked the captaiu if we should take some more passengers on board. He replied " Pull into smooth water and take Mrs Gibbs aud children on board. I heard him order the bag of bread to be thrown out aud say to Williams "You are within three miles of the land." Williams asked for provisions when he was on the poop before we left. By Mr Pitt: I could hear the breakers distinctly on the poop and the main deck We were about four miles from the light at 9 o'clock. Alexander Gardner, chief steward: The captain gave me orders about provisioning the boats about two o'clock. He told me to bring up some biscuits, and preserved meats, beer, and tins of biscuits, but no water. We had a difficulty in getting into the boats ourseives and that is why we did not put the provisions in. By Mr Pitt: I remember Mr Baillie being jn the cabm with the captain at about 11 »

o'clock looking at the charfc. I received orders to get provisions and to make coffee for all hands including passengers. The captain ordered me to put his overcoat in Mrs Gibbs' boat. James S. Cross, harbormaster: I went in the Barkly to the Queen Bee and reached her about 6 a.m. on the Wednesday. I found her about two lengths from the round part of the Spit. I did not take the bearing from the ship to any known part. She is about six miles from the Lighthouse Her head is abont S. £E. The deck was all under water. The tide was high. It rises about 11 feet. By Mr Pitt: Four or five miles would be a wide berth to give the Spit. I would stop the vessel from going 8 knots to heave the lead. Edwards & Co.'s boats always sound when going round. I should keep on sounding till I got round the Spit. A vessel could get soundings going 6 knots. By Captain Johnston: I did not sound outside where the ship is. I believe the ship is at the extreme end of the Spit, and if she had drawn two or three feet less water she would have gone round. Mary Elizabeth Gibbs : I was a saloon passenger by the Queen Bee. I remember asking the captain between eight and nine o'clock when we should see the red li»ht He said, " Not till after ten o'clock." 1 said I should not go to bed till I had scon it, as I thought it would be a sign that we were round. As he came down the companion ladder he said, "Now, Mrs Gibbs, you can see the red light." I went up on deck and saw it. The light was to the right of the ship. I think it vras about twenty-five minutes before the ship struck. When I came down I went into the captain's 1 cabin ' and there I saw the captain, chief mate, and steward all looking at the chart..' I was : struck with the peculiar expression on their faces. I heard the captain say, « S.$.E., Mr Bailhe, that's your course," and I thought Mr Baillie looked very discontented. LwemV to my cabin afterwards, and a little later I saw Mr Baillie standing at the door of the captain's cabin, and I thought no more about it. As the captain went up when the ship struck he esclaimed, "Oh* my God we're on the sands." I went on deck when the sun rose. The cutter and lifeboat were on the lee side. Some tins of meat and water and a bag of biscuits were put in them, and a3 the steward was putting provisions in I heard the captain say, « What are you doing that for; you will be onshore in three hours " The steward replied that he never heard of boats putting to aea without provisions The captain said, "Nonsense, they'llbe therein two or three hours." I suggested that my small carpet bag should be filled with biscuits. The captain said " Oh, as you like." He told the steward to fill the children's pockets with biscuits to keep them quiet. I did not understand chat officers were to be put into the boats. When the lifeboat was filled the order was given to sheer her off, and let the other boat be filled. Williams and Wardrope consulted together, but Williams seemed to be in command. They tried to get to the other boat. We went back to the ship once, and the captain told us to get into smooth water, and take the children off the other boat. He said nothing about remaining by the vessel. The men said it would not be safe to take the children in except under the lee of the land. When I first stepped into the boat the water was over my boots, and we had to begin baling at once, and it kept on leaking. We had no compass or chart, and none of us knew the coast. • By Mr Pitt: I had been belovsr since 915 when I was called up to see the,- red light. Mr Bailhe did not speak the whole time Iwe were in the captain's cabin. The captain made some laughing remark to me about my coming to look at the chart. The course he ordered was S.S.E. I don't remember his saying " half east." I have not been talking about the course to the second mate since I landed I did not speak to the captaimaboufc what I had noticed of the mate's manner William Henry Mason : I was third officer of the Queen Bee. I compared the binnacle and azimuth compasses about ten o'clock on Monday night, and they agreed within half a point. The ship's head was SE The courses were altered frequently from that time until she struck. I first heard the breakers shortly before she struck. They appeared to be on the starboard bow. No one drew my attention to them. I was standing with young Gibbs and the second mate on the weather side of the poop. Mr Gibbs looked through the glasses and remarked that what he saw looked like surf breaking on the land. It seemed to be not more than four or five miles distant. The second mate then looked and said they appeared like breakers, and he went off to see how she was heading, and I think it was as he was looking, she struck. I don't think the breakers were less than i miles away I had no orders as to which boat I should go in, and I heard nothing about officers going in them. When the boats left the side orders were given to keep as close as possible to the ship out of the trough of the sea. I understood that the people in the boats were to be arranged differently, and the' boats were to return to the ship for that purpose I saw that all the oars I could find were put into the boats, but I did not know how many were put into the cutter. I heard no orders about reporting the red light. •, By Mr Pitt : Several of us sung out as loud as we could to the boats to return, and waved our hand 3. After they had gone the captaiu sent me aloft to keep Bight of them and gave me a glass. I went to the mizen cross tree, and remained there about an hour till I lost sight of them. I reported the direction they had gone to the captain By Captain Johnson : At the time I saw the breakers I could see land from the starboard beam to three or four points on the bow. The boats had not much trouble to keep about the ship when they were ordered off. I think if they had tried they mi<*ht have got back to the ship when they were called back, and I think they were purposely kept back. J Mr Whyte, one of the passengers, was being examined when our reporter left the Court. The whole of the remainder of the evidence will be taken to-day, and this will probably last until nine or ten o'clock tonight. To-morrow morning the counsel will address the Court. The Churchman records with satisfaction a gift which has been made to the Church of England, by an ancuyinous donor' of "twenty-fire acres of land in one of the best farming districts, together with five acres at the Bluff." The Tiraaru Herald of the !3th instant says:—' Rumor hath it that the present dull state of things will shortly be enlivened by au interesting breach ot promise case, in which the fair one claims the modest sum of £2000, as the amount necessary to make reparation for her wounded feelings. The parties concerned are well known iv the district, but we are not yet at liberty to divulge any names. This will be both food for ourselves and the lawyers." It may not be generally known (observes Mayfair) that Hobart Pasha is not alone in the singular position of being an English officer aad a Turkish admiral. His predecessor is still alive-a hearty old gentleman ot seventy-two, a vice-admiral, and a K C B *, "known in the English navy as Sir Adolphus Slade, but by the Turks as Mushaver Pasha." Mushaver is a Somersetshire gentleman. Thirty years ago Texas entered the Union as a State with 140,000 population-white black, and Mexican. To-day she has 2,750 000 population. '

The Good Templars have forwarded to Mr Fox five petitions iv favor of his Local Option Bil, bearing 6527 signatures— 2260 from Dunedin and suburbs; 2085 from inland towns, and 1092 from Southland. A large number of rats at Wanganui recently got drunk on champagne, and conducted themselves in a moat disorderly manner, capering and squeaking like mad. It seems that the owners of 25 cases of cham ' pagne had a dispute with the Custom House people about certain charges made on it, and refused to pay them. The whole of the 25 cases were therefore destroyed, the contents being poured out. The rats got at the liquor, which collected in little pools here and there, and were awfully tight for days together. What will Mr Fox say to this— placing the means of intoxication 'vithin the reach of those unhappy rats. For our part, we sorely bemoan this wanton waste of good liquor.— Post. A sad story comes from New York. 'Many of our readers will remember the unfortunate actor, Walter Montgomery, who shot himself on his wedding-day a few years ago. It appears that his widow married again after an interval. Her husband deserted her, and we now learn that she died in an hospital in New York, afcer passing through almost every conceivable stage of suffering and degradation short of crime. Mr Turner of Ulceby, has this year clipped 125 ram hogs, under H months old, which produced 2,257 lbs. of wool, averaging over IBlbs. each, 60 averaged over 201b5., and four fleeces weighed 23, 24£ 25£ and 30^lbs, l the latter most probably being the heaviest fleece on record. — Hull and Lincolnslwe Times. We clip the following from a recent issue of the Auckland Weekly Neww.~ Everybody jjtaows Mr Nancarrow, the inspector of steam boilers and machinery; but everybody does . not know that while he was last in Auckland he sat beside a stranger in a concert-room walked ba;:k to the same hotel where both had been staying for some days, and between whom this conversation took place:— Stranger: •• I have just arrived from Austra'ia, and am going to Wellington to see a brother I have not seen for many years" Mr Nancarrow: '"I'm going down to Wellington nexc boat; we can go together" btranger: "I suppose Wellington is not a large town? I shall have no difficulty in finding my brother?" Mr Nancarrow : What is your brother's name?" Stranger'Hes in the Government service ; his name s Nancarrow." Mr Nancarrow "I'm the maiil" And he was: they had not met ior iour and twenty-years. A Justice of the Peace seeing a parson on a very stately horse, riding between London and Hampstead, said to some gentlemen who were with turn, «• Do you see what a beautiful horse that p.oud parson has got. I'll bauter bin a httle." " Doctor," said he, « you don't lollow the example of your great Master, « Vi?u Wa3 humbl y content to ride upon an ass " Why, really sir," replied the parson, '■ the ■lung has made ao many asses justices, that an Honest clergyman can hardly find one to ride if he had a mind to it