The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-12-07 00:00:00

mind that he neglected his duty by notpaying attent4
'Te
-Captain HpYrisiLlTere is a man who gets so wrong
in his calculations
,ttraf.h7 kets into the Irish Channel
(when, hpunded by the Geoig'i Channel) instead of
'Offing' into the Biistol Chandler, .E-11-4 according to his
aneoant he„ )yeitt at One firne some 47 . efifee
hours. even styposing hiS stateMent to be true, %hen'
off the Smalls wny d'id not "stekto'the West, and go
into the Bristol Channel ?"
Mr. HulF—No doubt, sir, you beinieni ticalgentle-
man, can see how he should have gone, but he'is not a
nautical man. '
Mr. Hull then proceeded to address the bench: on
behalf of the captain. He attthnitted that Whether the
a Maggie. Walker was .at ,St. Mary's at the time the
captain had started, or not, it was totally immaterial
'to the qiiesiliSiY Of' plris" Ship where she was beating
about; bat it' NikfildWi,e4l#lol to Captain Sewell for
L the time to einne,-tO see that st.M'ate did keep the I
ioi-boOk properly, and not` trust. to fry , (the captain's)
knowledge Of the bearings of :the lights and tointl.•
They had the facts befere theni; and if they thouglif, the
captain had been-guilty of -n'egl'igence in' not attending
-to-the -log;hoOk, -which he had candidlyadmitted he did
not .attend to, then, he was undoubtedly rendered liable
,
evidence-fi°6k
nap iumoi seri
deenute,
eb,
against he e w would
butsubmit
that that the
reallog
against him was what he had declared and sworn to in
the proter": Pat they were not here for the purpose of
-punishins-the daralti:-"the;real,lYOYquestion for, their eon-
sideiatiO7ii'Wstfi,•ditf l'lOritht*AV
C please address arain Harris—Yea ;abandon.the
yourself to that
qtteitiori,.
Idll--,-"MaY I bit that as the only point, or also
the other, because seed :40660 fell front yon that he
ought to have run into Milford Haver', Cardiff, or. some
other point thereabout?
Captain Harris—Yes, you may. The real question
you know, is, whether he was justified in aban-
doning the vessel and was there any necessity for him
to make for any id tiye.nuiTerous ports? The evidence
says there Was not; and in nry. opinion there was not
any cause to go into any of the Sariett_3( ports:
Mr. Hull thanked Captain Harris for hi'S oPinion'lnnd
observed that it was not his desire to occupy tie court
with any unnecessary remarks. The learned gentlettran
then proceeded to draw attention to the singular manner,
in which the inquiry had been got up. The complaint
had been 4idged with the underwriter by the man
Thompson ; and the consecttenee was, that not only an
inquiry h'ai b'een: instituted into Cue abandonment of the
vessel at.sea, but also into' ,the Moral Character of the
'captain, whieN hard ea.u.4Cl Tyndall` to'predfle evi-
dence which was entirely unnecessary;, . But leek at the
story as represented by Thomfisdn, and it would easily be
seen he had been guilty of the grossest perjury:. Thompson,
as they had been told by the captain, was brouylie hoine
with him from Dublin, along with the chief mate. The
captain, having a friendly feeling for him, which he
manifested by his good nature, by giving him a written
testimonial Wheif he was paid off, and also another to
enable him to pass the heard for the 16th of November, •
to receive a certificate of COMpetency as second mate.
How had he repaid the act of kindness shown by Capt.
Sewell? They found him making a demand nporrhim
or the owners for £l5; which, on. being cross-eiamined,
however, .he had coolly denied; but it was quite evident
he had then uttered a falsehood; for Kennedy, Messrs.
Burnet and Kidd's clerk, had been called, and other
witnesses, who had sworn that he'had, in their presence,
made such a demand: Then they had hiM, because he
could riot get the Money, going down to the Under-
writers to Mr. Tyndall, and making charges against the
captain, which he knew were perfectly li:denuded.
He had charged him with being drunk from the time
he went on board the vessel until the day, she
waslost, every day except Saturday ; and had said that
he himself was perfectly sober, and steered the boat in
which they were conveyed to the Ottila until a man
named Jackson, whom he alleged was also drunk, inter-
fered and took the control of the helm from him. These
statements were undoubtedly false, from the evidence of
several independent witnesses, all of whom swore dis-
tinctly that it was Thompson himself who was drunk.
The question then resolved itself to the point,- was
Captain Sewell justified in abandoning his ship on the
Monday. They had the evidence of Thompson, who had
committed such an amount of perjury upon all the colla-
teral points which bad been raised, that he submitted that
his statement was not to be believed at all from first to
last. It seemed to him that the captain had rested a good
deal upon the statements which were made to him by the
chief mate from time to time, and having gone four voy;
ages in the ship the captain was naturally well acquainted
with her, and using the knowledge he had of her, he
soon arrived at the conclusion, along with the mate,
that she was in a sinking condition. In support of -this
conclusion what better proof could they have thatthe
vessel was settling down than the crew coming to the
captain on the Sunday to complain of the state of her.
was not reasonable to suppose that she got better after
that time; in the midst of such weather, but continued
to get worse, and On Monday, when the Ottila came hf
sight it was quite evident what the general opinion of
the crew were, and they inimediately said they would
not pump any longer. Now, if they had not thought
that she was in a sinking state, why should they be in
such a hurry to abandon her when they were only about
seventy miles from Cork; and as the crew were not pre-
sent now, it was only right that the bench should
believe that it..was. on• that account that they left the
vessel. They had then the evidence of the sailmaker,
who had stated that he had paid particular attention
to the vessel, and from the manner she was rolling,
thought she was in a sinking condition.
Captain Harris—Yes, it is natural to suppose she was
rolling heavily, because. she had her topsails set and was
against the wind.
Mn Hull then contended that, had the Maggie Walker
not have sunk, it would, like the Conway, have cast' up
somewhere on the coast, but -had not done so ; and
although it might be suggested to the Minds of the
bench that the cutting of the water pipe had caused her
to sink, yet he submitted that this fact could not have
made the difference, because the water pipe was about a
fOot and a-half above the water line, and, therefore, not
an atom of water could have got into the ship until the
water, was at a greater level with the pipe. The captain
did certainly order the pipe to be cut on abandoning the
vessel, but not upon the Sunday, as stated by Thompson,
because he considered it would aid to sink the vessel
sooner, for the safety of other ships ; and if there was any
fault with him, it was because he had not taken sufficient
means to scuttle her. He concluded by submitting that
from the straightforward manner in which Capt. Sewell
had given his evidence, he was a man of the strictest
truth, and he felt • sure that 'when the bench took into
consideration the case, they would not deprive him of
his' certificate, by the report, they would make, which
was the only means he had of maintaining his wife and
family.
Mr. Raffles—You may be quite satisfied that the
court will lose sight of nothing in the captain's favour.
After some further discussion between' the court and
Mr. Hull, in the course of which the latter gentleman
said he admitted his client had been guilty of neglect of
duty in not sounding the water in the pumps, the bench
retired to consider whether they would. forward to the
Board of Trade the certificate given to' Thompsonlq
Captain Sewell, and put in by Mr. Tyndall as evidence
of the confidence the captain had in him ; and on their
return,
Mr. Raffles said—We shall make our report as soon
as possible, and we have no doubt we shall have to send
up the certificate to the Board of Trade.'
The chief mate, George Sewell, was then called by
Captain Harris ; and, in reply to a question, said he'
held a certificate of competency aSniate.
Captain Harris, (addressing him) said—Well, sir, I
have got to tell you that I hope it will be a caution to
you to keep your log-book in a proper way, because it is
supposed to contain a record of all the events of the
voyage. ' .'his is the only evidence wo have to go by in
case of the loss of a vessel. Therefore in future I
strongly advise you to make up your work every day.
I had a suspicion to retain your certificate, but Mr.
Raffles thought we should return it, and we will do so.
I hope this will be a caution to you.
The proceedings then terminated.
[lmmediately the decision of the Board of Trade 'is
announced it will be published,in our columns.]