The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-10-15 00:00:00

THE LOSS OF HER MAJESTY'S SHIP
"CAPTAIN."

The Naval Court formed to inquire into the cause of
the loos of Her Majesty a ship Captain and to try Mr.
James May, gunner, and the 17 surviving seamen, pro
Irma, under the 91st and 92nd sections of the
Naval Discipline Act of 1861, assembled on the last
day of its sittings. on Saturday, on board Her Ma-
jesty's ship Duke of Wellington in Portsmouth Harbour,
to conclude the deliberations and weighing of evidence
adduced before the Court by the various witnesses,
and to deliver judgment.
After the formal opening and the mustering in the
court of Mr. Jame. May, the gunner of the Captain,
and the 17 petty officers and seamen, the court wan
closed, and remained so until about a quarter to seven
in the evening, when the doors were opened, and the
l'resident and members seen seated round the large
table of the court, wearing their cocked hats, a sign
that the Court had framed and was about to deliver
its judgment.
The judgment of the Court, opening with the usual
preliminaries in naval legal technical formalities of
wording, was read by Captain Blake, the officiating
Judge-adveoate, and divested of this technical pre.
paratory wording was as follows :

The Court having heard the evidence of Mr. James May
relating thereto ;the loss of the ship!, and that of the Temain-
ing survivors, and such other evidence as they deemed
necessary, and having deliberately weighed and considered
the whole of the evidence before them, do find that tier
Majesty's ship Cap!ain was capsized on the morning of Cie
7th of September by the premium of mail, assisted by the
heave of the sea, and that the amount of sail carried at the
time of her loos 'regard being had to the force of the wind
and the state of the len. was Insufficient to have endangered
a ship endowed with a proper amount of stability. The
Court further find that no blame le attributable to Mr.
James May, gunner of the second class, and the survivors
of the Captain for her loss, and the Court do fully acquit
them of all blame, and the said Mr. James May and
the other survivors are fully acquitted accordingly. The
Court before separating find it their duty to record
the conviction they entertain that the Captain was
built in deference to public opinion as expressed in Par-
liament and through other chanuels, and In opposition to the
views and opinions of the Controller of the Navy and hie de-
partment, and that the evidence all tende that the Controller
of the :levy and his department generally disapproved other
construction. It further appearing on evidence that before
the Captain was received from the c ntractore a grave de-
parture from her original design had been committed,
whereby her draught of water was increased by about two feet,
and her freeboard was diminished to a corresponding extent,
and that her stability proved to be dangerously small, com-
bined with an area of sail, under these circumstances, exces-
sive ; the Court deeply regret that, if these facts were duly
known and appreciated, they were not communicated to the
officer in command of the ship ; or that. If otherwise, the
ship was allowed to be employed in the ordinary service of
the Fleet before these facts had been eutliciently ascertained
by calculations and experiment "

After the reading of the Court's judgment had been
concluded by the elating Judge- Advocate, the Presi-
dent directing Mr. James May, the gunntr, to stand
forward at the head of the Court table, returned his
swerd to him and said :

Mr. May, I am desired by this Court to avail myself of
this present occasion, the returning to you of your sword to
acquaint you that the Court is satisfied that you did every-
tlib.g in your power at the time of the loss of the Captain
to save the lives of more of your shipmates, consistent with
your duty, and that your conduct and that of the other
survivors of the crew of the Captain during the period they
were under your command reflects credit of yourselves and
on the service to which you belong."
The Court was then declared direolved.