THE BURNING OF THE SHIP COSPATRICK.
Third Day. The official inquiry into the loss of the Oospatriok was concluded yesterday, at the Greenwich Police Court, before Mr. Patteson, assisted by the Board of Trade assessors, Captain Pryce, Captain Castle, and Mr. Turner, principal shipwright surveyor to the Board. No report or judgment was delivered by the Court, but they were asked by the counsel for the Board of Trade, in his concluding remarks, to recommend fire-drill and the carrying of smaller numbers of emigrants in the ships. Mr. Arthur Cohen, Q. 0., and Mr. F. Hargrave Hamel appeared for the. Board of Trade; Mr. Dennistoun Wood (with whom was Mr.. Wqfkin Williams, Q.C.) for the Colonial Government ; Mr. G. Wood Hill for the owners. James John Boult, examined by Mr. Hamel, said he is a shipwright surveyor to the Board of Trade, and surveyed the Cospatrick, officially visiting her several times in Green’s dry dock. The first visit was bn the 21st of July, 1874, the last on the Bth of September, in the East India Dock, when she was nearly loaded. She was then undergoing repair, it being known that she had touched on a reef. The after and foremost part of the keel were removed and repaired. All the necessary repairs were instituted. He had originally seen her building at Moulmeiu, and now he examined her and found her thoroughly sound.. There could have been no better ship employed for the purpose. He was not concerned with the cargo. Samuel Thomas Cornish, another Board of Trade, surveyor, examined by Mr. Hamel, agreed with Mr. Boult’s evidence. He saw the vessel three or four times.
Mr. Wood Hill proposed to ask questions about other ships of Shaw, Savill, and Co. Mr. Patteson: Nobody doubts that the Cospatrick was a splendid vessel. " Captain John Thomas Forster, examined by Mr. Cohen, said he had been an emigration officer since 1852, and chief emigration officer for the last six or seven years. The emigration officers have about two years since been placed under the Board of Trade, having been until then under the Emigration Commissioners. The witness’s principal duty is to visit the emigrant ships from time to time by himself and his officers, to see that the requirements of the Passengers Acts are carried out. He inspected the Cospatrick four times, three times when she was loading in the East India Docks. The first time she was taking in her dead weight, and so not completely loaded ; the second time she had received the bulk of her cargo ; the third time she was just finishing. He looked round the hold and in the sheds, and made inquiries of the persons on board, and he knew generally the quantity of oil and spirits she carried, and did not object to it. He examined her boats, and framed his report. (This document was put in.) She had more boat accommodation by a few cubic feet than required by the statute. As a rule, they consider that the boats of a full emigrant ship will carry about one-third of the persons on board the ship, or one-15th of the number of cubic feet. He saw that the abstract of the Order in Council was on board. On the last day he took down from the captain’s mouth the cargo on board, having previously inquired himself. On the 10th of September, at Gravesend, the captain informed him that “there were no acids or combustibles on hoard.” He considered his duties as limited and defined by the Act of Parliament.
By Mr. Pennistoun Wood : At one time the Emigi’ation Commissioners chartered the ships, and then they had full power.' Now the colonies have taken the emigration into their own hands, so that the duties of the emigration officers are confined to seeing the Acts of Parliament are complied with. There is a change of persons rather than system, for he thought the emigration before was considered so successful that it was still carried on according to the same system. The Agent?General for the colonies now stand to the vessel as the Emigration Commissioners used to. The pi'actice was to carry such cargo as now. He was aware of the 29th section of the pi'inclpal Passenger Act, and he did not think that oil, spirits, and things of that kind were within the meaning of the Act likely to endanger the safety of the ship or lives of the passengers. He did not remember a fire on an emigrant ship before this. He believeTtthat the Gommissionex*s sent out 1100 ships, of which only five were lost, and he did not think one of them was lost by fire. By Mr. Wood Hill : The line of danger is drawn assuming there is proper discipline, stowing, and care. With proper discipline there is no danger from spirits, and they are not liable to spontaneous combustion. The oil also is .safe, and spirits and oil are not what they call “ combustibles.” By that word he meant such things as gunpowder and “ gunpowder stores”—that is, blue lights, rockets, and lucifer matches. Spirits and oil properly stowed are a safe cargo. ' It is very desirable ships should have cargoes of all sorts. A cargo entirely of railway iron would scarcely be a safe cargo. The general opinion is that the number of boats px*escribed to be carried on emigrant ships is as much as could be, and he believed her Majesty’s troop-ships did not carry a sufficient number of boats to save all the people on board. The ships were surveyed under the officers of the Board of Trade fi’om the time they come into dock till when they cleax*. He suggested things, and they were often done, though not strictly required by the law.
lie-examined by Mr. Cohen ; The discipline on board Government ships is better than on these emigrant ships. If the cargo caught 6re, a ship loaded as this was would have but little chance, but a fire happening to any general cargo of fine goods would, he thought, be equally dangerous as if there were oils and spirits in cargo. In the case of a wooden emigrant ship, with no water-tight compartments,, it was ahnost certain that two-thirds of those on board must perish. That being the case and' known, there would always be a rush to the boats, and there would be a great improbability that the boats would bo successfully launchedHe knew that the Board of Trade had made a regulation suggesting the assignment of a crew and officer to each boat, and directing that when possible the crew should be exercised at sea. It is the rule to do that. The outward goods are chiefly dense, and light freight is wanted to trim the ship. If you could have nothing in the emigrant ships but emigrants,, the other ships to the colony would be badly loaded. To carry in each emigrant ship only so large a number of emigrants as can be saved by the boats would be a question of expense. It would raise the cost to the Colonial Government and to the emigrants who pay, but would' give less chance of importing disease. By Captain Pryce : He never heard of spontaneous combustion in the boatswain’s, looker. If she had_ carried double tho number of boats, he did not think more lives would have been saved.
By Mr. Cohen; No doubt the certainty that the boats would contain all the people would be a great help. By Mr. Turner : The two forward boats were on their keels. The after two on skids were kept up. The forward bulkhead wag fifteen feet from the stern measured above. It was strongly built. George Sweeting : la a foreman stevedore. Stowed the Cospatrick. He remembered the forepeak of the vessel, winch contained coals - there was a bulkhead separating it from tho forehold. He saw some boards taken out at the top of the bulkhead,. They were nineteen feet.
in length, and they were athwart the ship. They were fastened by nails. He did not know of -any being taken out at the bottom, but the coals were in the forcpcak before he began to stow the cargo. He got into the forehatch down the hatchway. He saw the boards on top after they had been put up. In the forehold there was just abaft the bulkhead coals about five or six feet high, and they sloped off towards the leVel of the water tanks. At the forepart of the water tanks there were forty or ' fifty drums of oil on the coal; the water tanks were within eighteen inches of the deck on both sides of the hatchway. The salt provisions were forward of the water tanks on the starboard side. There was no cargo within seven feet of the forward bulkhead. There was .au open space. After that open space came the oil about three feet high. You did not come to any goods which reached the deck for 40 feet. That would be about the distance of the after-part of the fore-hatch, so that there was au open space on top right along to that part. The goods which touched the deck were large light hogsheads, containing earthenware cases and crates, the roughest stuff ho could get to make a i{ bulkhead. The beer was abaft these goods, and the “ bulkhead ” would be eight or ten feet fore and aft. The beer also touched the deck. Kext to the rough stuff forming the top of the “ bulkhead ” were casks of oil. The open space above the cargo till you came bulkhead ” was four feet amidships, and in a navt a foot or eighteen inches. On the foreside there was nothing to prevent a person pulling the rough stuff of the “bulkhead” down. The beer was bottled beer in barrels. The boards in the bulkhead were nailed on the peak or fore side. Henry Alfred Smith, R.N., despatching officer to the Hew Zealand Government, examined by Hr. Hamel, had been au emigration officer under the Commissioners for nineteen years and for two years to the Hew Zealand Government. He has to see that ships offered are adapted for the service. Then he superintends the fitting-out and provisioning, stowage of cargo —everything, in fact. He visited the Cospatrick. She was properly fitted, provisioned, and stowed. He went down nearly every day while the cargo was being put in. He should have objected to any cai-go that was wron". He goes and sees what it is for himself. He 'has power to object to anything under the charter-party with the owners, which gives more power than the Act of Pari(, liament. On the charter-party being shown to ; him he said there was no such clause in it, and that an old charter-party of two years ago was in his mind when he made the foregoing statement, and also when he inspected the ship. The old charter-party gave a power to object to cargo, but a good many ships had been sent out under the new charter-party. He had never objected to any cargo at any time except as to qualities. By Hr. Deunistoun Wood : The character of the cargoes carried under the Commissioners was such as now. Oils, and spirits, a general colonial cargo, were carried then. He did not remember any fire arising in an emigrant ship so laden, and the casnality to the Cospatrick was the only one he had ever had to do with. He in one case objected to a portion of salt in a ship, which was put in damaged. He.never had objections from the owners of the ships to do anything he asked them to do. Had he seen anything objectionable in the cargo he would have made the objection to it himself. About 100 vessels were chartered by the Hew Zealand Government last year, and they carried from 30,000 to 35,000 He was only speaking from guess. One ship ran on shore with aIT lives saved, and the Cospatrick, were the only two casualties. The Government of Hew Zealand chartered four of the ships en- ” tirelv, taking the whole of the ships. They had "not sufficient freight of their own ; they employed brokers, and were then unsuccessful in filling the ships. The bulk of the requirements o°f the Colonial Government is railway plant, which alone would not be a suitable cai-o-o. To send out an emigrant ship in ballast would treble the cost per head. It was a common thing for plundering by the crew or passengers to go on. From the evidence he had heard, he thought, as he had from the first, the fire came from plunder. It never could have originated in the boatswain’s locker, for it could then not have got into the lower hold so soon as it did. By Hr. Wood Hill ; The grating forward of the single men’s compartment was put up by witness’s orders for the purpose of ventilation. He cut off the forward part of the ship because he did not think it a suitable place to keep the emigrants. The berths and fittings were made under his direction. Air. Wood Hill said Hr. Temple (of Shaw, Savill, and X'o.) was present, if the Court wished to ask him any questions, but the Court, not desiring further evidence, was then addressed by counsel. Mr. Wood Hill said if his friend meant to suggest the prohibition of general cargoes' in emim-ant vessels, the question was one of Imperial importance, and could not be decided from the result of this short inquiry, but was rather for one of those commissions which his friend had lately assisted. As to the question of fact in this case, there was no evidence that the careo was dangerous, and such a cargo had been commonly carried for many years, without evil result. As to the cause of the fire, it would be better to leave it an open question than, in the absence of positive evidence, to come to any conclusion against the crew or the emiorants. Precautions had . been taken by the owners against men with lights plundering the vessel, but if any suggestion could be made by the Court, Shaw, Savill, and Co. would be glad to attend to it. Mr. Deunistoun Wood addressed himself to the observation of Hr. Cohen, that the Government should have chartered the whole of the vessel. There was no proof that the fire was due to the nature of the cargo, and the suggestion was impracticable. If the ships were to go out in ballast,' emigration would be too expensive, and so, in order to make emigration safe, they would abolish it altogether. The Colonial Government was anxious to discover the cause, so as to assure emigrants that it would not exist in future. Unfortunately, they had not succeeded. • Mr Cohen said he imputed no blame to the Government of Hew Zealand although he failed to agree with Hr. Wood m thinking it a subject of congratulation that the same system of emigration had been carried on Jot twenty years without improvement. Ho did not impute any blame to the shipowners. They directed a cargo to be shipped which wan approved by the Hew Zealand Government and her Majesty’s Government, and ordered it to be shipped by experienced stevedores. He vertheless, 476 people had been lost. One would fanoy that it was utterly impossible for an emigrant ship to catch fire, and yet we were told m this very case that the ’passengers and crew often plunder the cargo, and so cause special danger He himself did not think the Govcnraient aud the people of this country would remain inert, now that they knew we were m the habit of sending out large numbers ot emigrants in wooden ships, under such circumstances that if a fire did break out it was almost certain that scarcely any would escape. The rapidity with which the fire spread from .stem to stern showpd that the load the ship carried was, in fact, a dangerous one. I here was the boatswain’s locker full of inflammable matter, and underneath it coal. IS ext to that more coal, upon the coal oil, then light measurement goods, like paperhangings, with beer close by, aud next spirits, and then, qmte m the stern, paraffine oil. He did not suggest the theory of spontaneous combustion, but if such a ship once caught fire there was scarcely any means of escape.. It was admitted, he said, that the boats could only save a third of the persons on board, and that being so, there is a life and death struggle for them, and the captain will not have them launched till the last moment, for they are sure to be swamped. As to the cause of the fire, he could not help thinking that the light goods of the bulkhead ” were pulled down (for there was nothing on the fore-side to prevent it) to get to the beer. As to precautions for the future, it mi'dit be that if a ship carried this enormous number of emigrants it ought to bo an iron ship, and in water-tight compartments, or that the bulkheads, at least, ought to bo of iron. It was an unfortunate circumstance in this case. that there were planks which could be
removed from the bulkhead, and so gave access to the entire hold. As to the boats, it did seem that nautical engineers might devise some means, whether by davits swung inboard or other appliances, for saving a greater number of lives; and generally, by increasing the number of boats, diminishing the number of emigrants in one ship, and by fire-drill, something might be gained. Mr. Patteson then said, “We shall consider our report.*’ . •
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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4381, 5 April 1875, Page 2
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2,966THE BURNING OF THE SHIP COSPATRICK. New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4381, 5 April 1875, Page 2
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