The length to which, notwithstanding its abbreviation, our report of the official iuquiry into the recent wreck at Charleston has imperceptibly extended, must be our excuse for not referring at any length, and in the present number, either to the subjectmatter of the inquiry or its inevitable result. With regard to its result—we mean the opinion which the officer presiding has felt himself bound to express—there can be but one view taken by any person perusing the evidence. It is a view of the case which is also fortified by the fact that the evidence of more that one witness, but especially of one (Air Dick) was the evidence of a person thoroughly competent to judge of what ho saw, and who was yet by no means a hasty or willing narrator of what, on this occasion, came under bis observation. The view which must be taken of the presiding officer's report is that it is as abundantly justified as it is unmistakably and explicitly expressed. We speak only of the wreck of the vessel, and not of the loss of life; and, limited to that, it must be evident that the owners of the Harry Bluff—Craddock and Jackson—were themselves the direct authors of the disaster which cost them the loss of their property ; that they invited it in defiance of what should have been to them, where others' lives were involved, authoritative advice and orders ; and that they have added to this defiance a desire to blame which has been proved to be altogether unjustifiable, most ungenerous, and mean. The Harbor-Master, whom they would so willingly implicate, is shown on the other hand to have done all that duty and humanity called upon him to do.
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Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 566, 12 October 1869, Page 2
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287Untitled Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 566, 12 October 1869, Page 2
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