The Express.
London, England, 1864-03-25 00:00:00

MITTLE OF PRIVT COUNCIL TOR TRADE.

My Lords,—ln pertinence of your directions, I have held
an official investigation into the eirciusatanse alluding I
the shandooment of the ship John i
Lion of Liverpool,
which occurred on the evening of the Let January Waif;
about lat. 20.30 N., sod long. 37.57 W. lo this oqwity I
have been assisted by Captains Harris and Cow, as maniacal '
assessors, and now beg to report .—That the John Lion was
built at St. John, !sew Brunswick, is the year 1834, and I
registered at Liverpool is the year 1858, of the berths of
1,J96 10.100 tons. Her length was 205 feet, her breadth
39 8-10, and the depth of her hold from the tonnage deck
was 22 feet 4-10. Her osigisal tonnage aps to have bees 1
1,171 97-100 tons, but having been so meetly raisedl
upon, her gross tonnage became 1,596 10-1 as stated in
her register. The John Line was owned by Mr. David
Feriae, merchant of Liverpool, and was commanded by 34. I
Thomas Browning, who holds • certificate of competency
as master dated the 4th of June, 1860. She had • crew of
30 hands, all told, at the time of her abandonment. The I
John Linn left Liverpool, on the outward voyage, in De-
cember, 1862, booed to Bombay, sod arrived there on the
lot of May, 1863. While at Bombay she was thoroughly
caulked from the copper upwards to the gunwale, and &is
not appear to have made any water ss she took. in her
cargo. Having completed her loading, which was of great
ulna, counting of seeds. spices, dyes, and 'cotton, which
was insured in Liverpool alone at 190,000 i., she galled from
Bombay. staunch and in good condition, ea the 16th of Sep-
tember last. droving V, feet 5 babes aft, and 20 feet 8
inches forward. During her passage home the ship en-
countered come heavy weather off the Cape of Good Hope,
Undoes not appear to have strained or to have made any
water. On the , tti of December, being then in 1.35 N, aad
29.39 W., a leak was discovered, which continued to increase
till the evening of the Ist of January, when the ship wee
abandoned. During thee* 24 days every effort was made to
contend against the leak, but to no purpose, and the captain
appear" to have altered his coarse gut foe the West Indies,
subsequently for the Cape de Verd Islands, the the nearest
land, on both of which occasions he was baffled by head
winds. From Dec. 30 to Jan. 2 very bad weather pre-
vailed, • gale blowing from the &S. W., which, however
unusual in that latitude, was singularly confirmed by a re-
ference to the log of the Deogaum, the vessel which fell in
with the John Linn after her abandonment. On the 31st
of December all the pumps got hopelessly choked with
seed, and they commenced to throw cargo overboard,
making • well in the afterhold for the purpose of baling,
which was continued till the Felix Bernabo wee sighted.
The crew were by this time quite exhausted, the weather
continued very tbreateniog, eight was coming on, and the
master of the John Lion finding the water within
4 feet or 4i feet of her lower bold beams, em-
braced the offer of the master of the Felix Ber-
nabo, to hike himself and crew on board, and they left
their vessel, and were carried into Martinique. It may
here be added, that the captain of the Felix Bensalem, in a
letter add to the Commissary of Marisa at Martinique,
asserted th John Linn appeared to him to be somas-
ageable an In • sinking state wltu he took her master and
crew no board. Within twenty-four hours of the abandon-
ment, the Deogaum, commanded by Captain Beaglebole,
bound front GJLo to Antwerp, fell is with the derelict, bat
no one boarded her till Sunday morning, at seven o'clock.
The chief mate then west on board in the first boat, and
be hailed the Durum, reporting the John Linn to be half
full of water, which he estimated at eleven feet. Imme-
diately afterwards, Captain Beaglebole and his second mate
went on board, and, studios cm the cargo is the lower bold,
sounded with a capstan bar, sad found, as be stated, throe
feet six inches of water. As the cargo consisted of nine tiers
of bsgsbelow the cotton, and only three had beet removed,
it is obvious that be could not have reached the skis of the
ship by many feet. In fact, the second mate admitted that
when he wooded be struck upon something which he took
to be a beg. No other soundings were taken, and no attempt
was made to eland the well, although • seven feet sounding.
cad was lying on the deck beside the pump. The Dupont
remained by the ship till 2p.m. oa Tuesday, the 6th, daring
which time they made no attempt to sail her, but occupied
themselves in removing the ship's sails, stores, and furniture.
Upon leaving her the chief mate, believing that there
was no chance of saving the vessel. upon his sole respon-
sibility set her on fire—an act which, under the citcum-
stances, was not justifiable, and certainly not without con-
sulting his master. The Deogaum sailed slowly away, sod
the last that was seen of the bruiting vessel was about
11 p.m., her mainmast haring previously fallen over
the side. After hearing the evidence of Captain Beagle-
hole and such of his officers and crew as were mlled, I
I was clearly of opinion that the evidence failed to substan-
tiate the serious charge which bad been made against the
! master and crew of the John Linn, the gist of wbieb was,
, that the ship bad been abandoned with 3 feet 6 inches
of water only in her hold. whereas It was obvious that
in a ship of her sin they never touched the bottom is
sounding. Oa the other hand, the evidence of the chief
officer and others of the crew of the John Linn, confirmed
as it was by the °gamin/Moo of • carefully kept logbook,
satisfied me that the master and his crew used every exec.
lion to get his skip home, or into a poet of safety, aad only
abandoned her in extremity, and when he considered it
neosesary to save life, and after 24 days of unremitting
exertion. Under these eirourasteacies, I have had great
pleasure in returning to Captain Browning his certificate.—
have, he., J. & Karnali, Pollee Iligistrale.
Liverpool, March 13, 1!64.
We conger a the above
lirepeat,
Joss Oow, ua' Nautical Asawows.