The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-07-31 00:00:00

ELEVENTH DAY.

The inquest was resumed before Mr. Statham and the
jury, at teti o'clock yesterday, in the Nisi Prius Court,
St. George's Hall.
Mr. William Pirrie was the first witness examined :
He deposed that he is agent in Liverpool for the Excel-
sior. Was on board the Excelsior on the night of the
sth, and morning of the 6th of July. Went on board
about eleven o'clock on the night of the sth. The
captain was then alongside of the ship. The pilot was
not on board. The latter came on board soon after.
The captain and witness went on board together. The
witness was on the deck-house at the time o leaving the
dock gates. The captain, Mr. fharley, Mr. White, and

the pilot, were there also. The first order he heard given,
was " hard-a.port." On leaving the Salisbury dock, that
order i.vaQ given by the pilot, who also gave orders to "go
a-head full speed."! Those orders were obeyed. The
helm was kept hard-a-port until_ the vessel got her head
round. The next order then was " steady." She was
then about mid-channel. Saw several lights of ships in
the river. They were reported. A light was reported on
the starboard bow. The next report was, " a light right
a-head." Saw the light, and it appeared to witness to
he on the starboard how. Was then on the front part of
the deck-douse, and as near as possible amid-ships.
The light afterwards proved to be that of the Mail.
it was then about a mile away. Observed that
the pilot had glasses, and that he was examining
the light. Having examined it, the pilot said,
"it is all right—it is a vessel at anchor."
Witness looked at the light continuously until the
collision took place. The pilot gave orders to starboard

after the light was reported. The mate reported from
forward, " by my God, that's a steamer's light," or
something to that effect. The pilot then gave the order
" hard-a-port—stop her—reverse full speed." The
collision took place immediately. While ob3erving the
light continuously, witness saw no other lights on board
the Mail, up to the time of the collision. After the
collision, saw a green light on hoard her, but did not
see any red light. Looked particularly for the bow
lights previously to the collison. When he first saw the
light, it appeared to him to be that of a vessel at anchor.
The Rock Light was then a little on the Excelsior's
port bow. Does not think the Rock VOA could have
interfered at all with their seeing the other lights. Is
accustomed to steamers and their lights.
To Mr. Blair : Is never in the habit of assisting In the
navigation of the vessel when on board, or of giving
orders. No orders whatever were given by Mr. Charley
before the collision. No one except the ordinary crew,
and the pilot, was interfering with the navigation. Wit-
ness was on the deckhouse just as any ordinary passenger
might be. There was nothing to call his attention to the
lights that night, more than any ordinary light. Did not
anticipate any peculiarpdifficulty or danger on that voyage
more than any other ; gave more attention to the white
light, which proved to be that of the Mail, than to any
other of the lights he saw ; did so because the pilot
looked so long and steadily at it through his glasses,
and because they were approaching it end on ; they
continued stem on, until the order to starboard, when
they altered a little ; scarcely more than half a minute
intervened between the order to starboard and " hard-
a-port." No allowance had been given to the men that
day in consequence of its being the vessel's first trip ;
does not know that the men had anything, to drink;
witness bad nothing whatever to drink after he came on
board ; did not see any of the men under the influence
of drink in any degree, although he saw them all and
spoke to many of them.

To Mr Raffles . The mate appeared to be taken by
surprise when he reported the vessel to be a steamer ;
saw no ill usage towards any of the Mail's passengers
who came on board the 'Excelsior; witness assisted
several into the steam-tug, and told them they sho*ll
be safely landed.

To Z. Bremner : It was witness who went to order
the pilot ; the pilot, in witness's opinion, attended to
his duties—no man could be more attentive ; is frequently
in the habit of crossing the channel; the. course taken
was the ordinary course of vessels coming from Liver-
pool ; should say there is no blame whatever to be
attached to the pilot.
To Mr: Aspinall : If the Mail had the ordinary side
lights of a steamer, properly placed and properly lighted,
witness could not have missed seeing them. Was on
board the tug-boat alongside the Excelsior when he saw
the Mail's green light. Could not see it until he got
to the extreme port-side of the tug's paddle-box. There
is not the slightest foundation for the insinuation that
witness had beF•n having too much to drink, or any one
else on board the ship.

Captain Joseph Cook was called, at the instance of
the coroner, and deposed : I am superintendent of
pilots for the port of Liverpool. I commanded ships
for many years. I have been upwards of seventeen years
superintendent of pilots. When a pilot is appointed to
take charge of a vessel, it would be his duty, on going
on board, to make all necessary enquiries to justify him
in proceeding, after getting on board, supposing it to be
outward bound. His duty is to take the conduct of the
ship in her course ; to keep on the east side mid-channel.
There are no regulations of the pilot committee fso.
directing pilots, beyond the bye•laws on that. point. I
think the command, ia a certain degree, is divided—the
pilot takes charge of the ship in her course, and the
captain, being the chief representative of the owners of
the ship, takes care that a proper look-out is kept; and
I am not quite clear as to the, control of the speed,
whether it devolves upon the captain or the pilot. I
prefer to leave that question to the lawyers. (Laughter.)
To Mr. Bremner : Outgoing steamers are not now
compelled to take pilots on going out of Liverpool; that
exemption is made by an order of council of the 30.11
January, 1854.

Mr. Aspinall said, there was a subsequent Act of
Parliament which abolished that order.
The Coroner : I think so, too.
The witness said he was aware the order was previous
to the Merchant Shipping Act.
To Mr. Rallies : Steamers leaving Liverpool, frequently
violate the law, by passing on the west side of mid-
channel. The violation of the law is undoubtedly a
dangerous course to pursue.
To Mr. Aspinall : A long steamer leaving Liverpool,
invariably gets to the west of mid-channel before she
gets her head round at flood. In order to obey this rule.
it would be necessary to come back to the east side, and
then to go over to the west again to get out by the Rock
channel.
This closed the evidence.

The Deputy-coroner, in summing up said, that the
jury were aware that the simple case they had to enquire
into was, the cause of death of the eight persons whose
bodies they had viewed. There bad been introduced,
in the course of 'the enquiry, a gond deal of evidence
which they might put out of consideration, as not being
applicable to that subject, namely, the conduct of the
Excelsior's crew to the passengers of the Mail, and the
injuries which some of the survivors sustained. The
question to be determined was solely as to the manage-
ment of the parties in charge of the two steamers—
whether either of them was amenable to the law, as being
the cause of the death of the persons in question. He
did not propose to read over all the evidence that had
been given, but to do so in regard to the depositions of
the captain and mate of each vessel, and the pilot of the
Excelsior, and then to refer generally to the remainder
of the evidence, though, at the same time, he was prepared
to read the evidence of any particular witness which the
jury might require. The Coroner then read over the
evidence to which he referred ; and, in respect to the
pilot, laid it down that it was his duty to direct the ves-
sel in accordance to the report he received ; and that,
when a light was simply reported a-head, he was entitled
to presume that it was a vessel at anchor. As regarded
him, then, the only question was, whether he was right
in going over to the Cheshire shore, and not keeping
to the east side of the river? In cOnclusitin, the case
seemed to him to be so clearly summed up in the paper
furnished to him by Captain HoJgson, that he would
read it to the jury, and leave the points suggested in it
to be determined by the jury. tie then read the paper,
which raised the following questions :-
Ist. Was the •Mail on the prOper side of the river ?
2nd. Did the Mail do right in porting her helm when
they saw the green light of the Excelsior; denoting the
helm was a-starboard ? 3rd. Were the side lights of the
Mail in a proper position to be se, n agreeably to the act ;
an I if FO, were they sufficiently eltlf—at the "time of
collision to be seen half-a-mile off, a distance sufficient
for avoiding a collision ? 4th. Should the jury be of
opinion that the Mail's lights were as deseri!).,l by the
mate of.the Maria, and constable No. 9, the case is
decided and the ail cleared of any blame. sth. By such
being the case, who on board the Excelsior is to blame ?
—the person in charge, for having been on the wrong
side of the river, of the man who. had the 100k-out, for
not having seen the Mail's lights in time to have avoided
the collision. 6th. If the jury cannot be satisfied from
the evidence that the Mail's lights were as they ought to
have been, or that they were improperly placed, or too
dim, the blame must be divided—the Excelsior in the
first place, for being on the wrong side of the river; and
the Mail for not having sufficient lights.
.4 Juror asked if the captain of the Mail was responsi-
ble for the position of the lights.
The Deputy-coroner said, that he 'considered the
captain was not responsible for the position of the
ho having a sea going certificate as to their
sufficiency, &c., but he was responsible for their con-
dition.

The Jury retired about ten minutes past three o'clock,
and remained in deliberation a considerable time.
Shortly after five o'clock it was stated that twelve of
the jurors had agreed upon their verdict.
At twenty-five minutes past five the jury came into
court, and the foreman handed in a verdict, which be
stated had been agreed to by fourteen of the body. The
verdict was as follows :--" We consider that the captain,
mate, and crew of the Mail are exonerated from all blame.
We consider that the pilot of the Excelsior was guilty of