The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-09-03 00:00:00

POLICE.

STEAM.PACKATS.
Masetou.wonau, SEPT. 2.—lt will be recollected that on a
former day a complaint was made here regarding the tr.i4conduct of
some persons connected with hteam.packets, and to-day, Mr. W. I.
Hall. and Mr. De Buck, two of the Managing Directors of the
(leneral Steam Navigation Company. together with Captain Mar-
tin, of the City of Loudon steam-packet. and two other persons
who were on board the packet, attended for the purpose of Trim-
Mg the complaint.
The matter of complaint made to the Lord Mayor was, that a
female servont of the complainant, and his three children, were
crossing the river in ahoat, under the care of a waterman. Now,
this first statement, the Captain assured his Lordship, war quite
inczrreet ; for, Instead of crossing the river under the care of a
watermam they had been merely sent out for recreation on the
river, which fact the complainant himself admitted in a letter ad-
dressed to, and inserted in a certain morning raper ; but on the
contrary, they were In a boat by themselves. lashed alongside a
barge, in which were the complainant, lighterman, and his ap-
prentice. The bares was dropping down the river, pith the tide,
and the steamer craning up against it; and the captain of. the
steamer, ir,stead of wantonly running against the barge, used every
effort to avoid this particular barge, as also another barge which
was near, and that immediately it warn seen that one or other of rite
barges was likely to come in contact with the steamer, and before
they actually touched each other, the engines of the steam ves-9
were stopped. It was true that the moment the boat was, by the
heeling round of the barge, cast against the steam WWI, that the
lightettran was in the boat, but he had only just jumped into her
in time to east her off, and bear her astern, which would have
cleared her of the steam vessel, and which, if he had been in the
boat 'las he ought to have been), be might have prevented the ac-
cident. It was stated, that the complainant's lighterman was,
from deafness, incapable of hearing any direction which might be
given to him, that the assertion of the complainant, that at the
time of the accident the steam vessel was proceeding at the rate of
fifteen miles an hour, was, on the face of it, evidently a gross ex-
aggeration, for which all the late material improvements and in.
creased experience in steam navigation, it was yet impossible to
propel a vessel, teem of double the power of the one in question,
at the velocity above stated. When going at the greatest speed,
bib vessel never went more than nine miles an hour, and to and
from Greenwich never more titan six, being within the prescribed
regulations of the city. A regular log-book was kept for the in.
spection of the Directors, by which it would appear that a due
conformity had been paid, not only to th. regulations, but every
precaution used to prevent accidents and injury to property.
The Loki) MAYOR regretted that any erroneous statement pre-
judicial to the proprietors of .the noun-packets should have gone
abroad, particularly as die statement strU entirely expiate. The
representation now made altered materially the nature of the occur-
rence in his Lordship's opinion ; but as the complainant was not
pre+ nt. he could not pretend to give a decided opinion
The Captain stated that he had waited on the complainant, and
intimated the intention of the Directors of waiting on his Lordship,
to remove the false impression formed by his misrepresentations;
he had ;lot, however, thou: ht proper to attend.
The Loan MAYOR said in future he should, as he lead grown
more experienced is the matters, never listen to the statement of
any complaint, without both parties being present.
The Directors thanked his Lordship for the attention they had
exper:enced, and added that on every occasion they would give the
fullest explanation of their proceedings.