Chapter XIII: Appendix

The narrative which we have here given of the Wreck of the _London_ was written pending the inquiry instituted by the Board of Trade to arrive, if possible, at the cause of the melancholy catastrophe. It is to be regretted that the inquiry, though it lasted many days, has not added much to the information that was given to the public by the survivors upon their landing at Plymouth. No discovery has been made as to the real cause which brought about the melancholy event, although it is hardly possible to conceive any question of more serious importance to the public mind. The evidence given at the inquiry was by no means satisfactory. On the one hand, those directly connected with the owners gave their evidence, and on the other hand, there was the testimony of the Emigration Inspectors who had passed the ship, and who could not be expected to stultify themselves by a new judgment of her seaworthiness. But against this testimony of ship-builders and inspectors has been placed the evidence of those who declare that the ship was in disgracefully bad trim, and, as will be seen among the slips that were picked up in bottles that were cast away on the morning of the wreck, there was one which says that the vessel was too heavily laden. Great dissatisfaction has been expressed, and it has even been made a subject of discussion in the House of Commons, that Mr. Traill, the magistrate before whom the Board-of-Trade inquiry was conducted, did not permit Counsel to cross-examine witnesses on behalf of those who have lost relatives: but it seems that there really was no power under the Act of Parliament to admit of such cross-examination. The tonnage, measurement, and steam-power of the ship, together with the names of her owners, the nature and quantity of her cargo, were stated before the Court. We heard again the story of her voyage from the Docks to Gravesend, and from Gravesend to Plymouth, and from Plymouth to the Bay of Biscay. There was no charge made against Captain Martin, and no one dreamed of imputing negligence or incapacity to so experienced a seaman. The evidence of the official surveyors and other experts examined by the Court of Inquiry as to the construction and fittings of the _London_ was, on the whole, decidedly in favour of her perfect seaworthiness. In the opinion of the Court, the immediate cause of her loss was the sea getting into the engine-room and extinguishing the fires; but the Court did not venture upon any positive conclusions as to whether the action of the sea carried away the skylight over the engine hatchway, or whether the skylight was properly secured. It did not appear in evidence that the fastenings of the skylight were not properly secured, and it was distinctly stated that the hatchway was perfectly battened down. There were several points in the evidence as regards the occurrences at sea--such as the carrying away the masts and booms, the delay in clearing away the wreck, the loss of the boats, and other matters relating to the management of the ship--which might have been more satisfactorily explained had the lamented Captain, or any of the officers of the ship, survived to explain them. In the absence of such explanation, it is but reasonable to give Captain Martin the credit for the character he always possessed, of being an able and careful seaman, who would not be guilty of any great default of management.

For ourselves, we can hardly believe that the ship was in the disgraceful condition that some represent her to have been, unless we are ready to assume that there was a gigantic conspiracy among all concerned in pronouncing the ship to be in safe trim. The Surveyor of the Board of Trade passed the ship; Lloyd’s Surveyor, acting in the interests of the Underwriters, passed the ship; and lastly, the ship was passed by the Emigration Surveyor, who had not only to look to the ship generally, but to take into consideration her cargo, for the purpose of seeing whether she was overloaded. We join in the universal regret that the real cause of the ship’s foundering, beyond what is given in the preceding pages, is still a mystery; and it only remains for us again to express the hope that still more scrutinizing care will be exercised by Government Inspectors and others, in regard to every ship concerning whose safe trim they are called upon fairly and honestly to testify.

* * * * *

Messrs. Wigram have kindly forwarded the following List of Passengers per steam-ship _London_, Captain J. Bohun Martin, for Melbourne:--

CHIEF CABIN.

Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Draper
Mr. Owen and child
Mr. and Mrs. G. F. P. Urquhart
Mr. J. Patrick
Mr. and Miss Vaughan (Brooke)
Mr. J. Alderson
Mr. P. Benson
Mr. and Mrs. J. Fenton, and two children
Mr. G. M. Smith
Mr. and Mrs. Chapman, and two children
Mr. and Mrs. Clark, and son
Mr. F. Lewis
Mr. and Mrs. J. Bevan
Dr. J. Woolley
Mr. and Mrs. Debenham
Miss L. Maunder
Mr. J. Robertson
Mr. T. M. Tennant
Mrs. Traill and child
Mr. G. Palmer
Mr. T. Brown
Mr. and Mrs. Amos
Mr. E. Brooks
Mr. J. R. Richardson
Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Kerr
Mrs. and Miss King
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas and two children
Mr. A. Sandilands
Mr. E. Youngman
Mr. H. J. Dennis
Mr. E. A. Marks
Mr. D. F. De Pass
Master W. D. Burrell
Dr. J. Hunter
Miss D’Ovoy
Miss C. McLachlan
Miss Cutting
Mr. McMillan

SECOND CABIN.

Mr. Kaye Eastwood
Mr. F. Stone
Mr. and Mrs. White
Miss H. Price
Mr. J. L. Williams
Mr. and Mrs. Graham
Mr. B. G. Rowe
Mr. J. E. Wilson (_saved_)
Mrs. Morland
Miss G. Graham
Mr. J. Dothie
Mr. C. Gough
Mr. A. Bruce
Mr. J. Woodhouse
Mr. G. Cross
Mr. W. Day
Mr. D. W. Lemon
Mr. and Mrs. Giffett
Mr. G. Chennells
Mr. and Mrs. Wood
Master and Miss Clayson
Mr. Thomas Wood
Mr. Godfrey Wood
Miss E. Wood
Mr. B. Bevan
Miss S. Brooker
Mr. Davies
Mr. T. O’Hagen
Mr. H. W. Harding
Mr. F. Fryer
Mr. J. Munro (_saved_)
Mr. D. C. Main (_saved_)
Mr. C. Johnstone
Mr. P. Fenwick
Mrs. and Miss Meggs
Mr. G. H. Campbell
Miss E. Marks
Mr. E. G. Trevenen
Mr. and Mrs. Hickman, two sons and two daughters
Mr. A. McLean
Mr. Davies

THIRD CABIN.

Mr. W. Passmore
Mr. H. Miller
Mr. C. P. Chandler
Mr. B. Hay
Miss E. Jones
Mrs. and Miss Simpson
Mr. and Mrs. Hanson
Mr. and Mrs. Graham and three children
Mr. David Graham
Mr. McVittie
Mr. G. Rolwegan
Mr. and Mrs. Sercombe and three children
Mr. and Mrs. G. Flick and four children
Mr. R. Trevenen
Mr. D. Block
Mr. J. Gerkem
Messrs. Zulec Morris and Zulec Barnett
Mr. S. Bolton
Mr. T. Skeggs
Mr. and Mrs. D. Smith
Mr. A. Umphray
Master Spring
Mr. A. Hoyeim
Mr. J. Walls
Mr. W. Barron
Mrs. Lampes and two children
Mr. Algernon L. Otter
Mr. John Little
Mr. H. McCovey
Mrs. Bachelor
Mr. J. Kirkwood
Mr. W. Clifton
Mr. R. Reynolds

SEA MESSAGES FROM THE PASSENGERS.

Admiral Halsted, the Secretary of Lloyd’s, has received the following letter from Sir Anthony Perrier, C.B., Her Majesty’s Consul, and Lloyd’s Agent at Brest, dated 24th February 1866:--

SIR,--I annex a translation of an extract from a letter just
received from the Commissary-General of Marine at Lorient,
which may be of interest to those concerned in the fate of the
unfortunate _London_, should the original papers sent to Paris not
have been transmitted to Her Majesty’s Government by the Minister
of Marine.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
ANTHONY PERRIER.

To the Secretary at Lloyd’s.

Extract of a letter from Commissary-General of Marine at Lorient:--

(_Translation._)--On the 12th of February last three bottles were
found on the coast of Guiberon and Locruariaquer, containing six
papers written in English, as follows:--

_The first paper_--D. W. Lemon, London, Thursday, 10th January
1866. The ship is sinking; no hope of being saved. Dear parents,
may God bless you, as also me, with the hope of eternal salvation.

_Second paper._--Steam-ship _London_.--They are putting out the
boats.

_Third paper._--F. G. Huckstepp. On board steam-ship _London_, lat.
46 deg. 20 min., long., 7 deg. 30 min.; lost boats, masts, and
sails; ship leaking.

_Fourth paper._--We commenced our voyage on Saturday, the 30th
December 1865. Sunday in the channel, Monday in open sea; Tuesday
in ditto; Wednesday at Cowes; Thursday at Plymouth; Friday and
Saturday at sea; Sunday bad weather; Monday water from the stern
comes in cabins; the 9th, heavy damages, a boat lost. May we get
home. Storm.--H. G.

_Fifth paper._--F. C. McMillan, of Launceston, Tasmania, 12th
January, to his dear wife and dear children: May God bless you all.
Farewell for this world. Lost in the steam-ship _London_, bound for
Melbourne.

_Sixth paper._--H. J. D. Denis to Th. Denis Knight, at Great
Shelford: Adieu father, brothers, and my ... Edi ... steamer,
_London_, Bay of Biscay, Thursday, ten o’clock. Ship too heavily
laden for its size, and too crank; windows stove in; water coming
in everywhere. God bless my poor orphans. Request to send this, if
found, to Great Shelford. Storm not too violent for a ship in good
condition.

On the same day were found, on the shoals of Guiberon, a binnacle watch, stopped at half-past ten o’clock, a woman’s shift, two cotton sheets, two splinters of wood, having on them in white letters, and six centimetres (2½ inches long), the word _London_.

A great quantity of staves have been picked up along the coast.

In compliance with instructions from the Minister of Marine, the above-mentioned papers have been sent to the Minister of Marine and Colonies.

Transcriber’s Notes

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.

Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs and outside quotations.

Original text used “steam-ship” and “steamship”; both retained here.

Original text used “Mc” and “M‘” (the curving left single quote was used because it looks similar to a superscript “c”). In this ebook, “Mc” is used for all of them.