The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-18 00:00:00

The Loss of the Matilda Steamer.

The following is the official report relative to the
loss of this vessel :

"My Lords,—l have held an official investiga-
tion, assisted by Cartains Harris and Cow, into the
circumstances attending the stranding, and subse-
quent total loss, of the steam vessel Matilda, which
occurred on the night of the 4th of April last, on
Lundy Island, and I have now the honour to for-
ward this as my report. The Matilda was a twin
screw steamer, built at Renfrew in this present
year, and registered at Glasgow, of the burthen
544 93-100 tons. She was built of iron, and pro
palled by two engines of the combined horse power
of 150. She was manned by a crew of 30 hands,
all told, and was commanded by Mr W. G. Pinchon,
who holds a certificate of competency as master,
dated January .13, 1853. The Matilda left Glasgow,
in ballast, bound for Cardiff, to fill up with coals.
After taking on board 500 tons, and about 10 tons
of steel and other metals, she took her departure
from Cardiff, bound. to Bermuda, on the evening of
April 4, between five and six o'clock. At 7.10
p.m, she passed the Nash Light, and at
8.30 p.m. the Skerweather Lightship bore
N.B. three or four miles distant. From
this position the course steered was W. by N. 7.1 N.,
and the vessel was running at full speed-10 or 11
knots. At 10 o'clock p.m. a fog came on, and her
speed was reduced to one-half. A little before 11
o'clock p.m., tho fog having- bcoutuo thither, tho
engines were put " dead slow," and the course was
altered about half a point, or to W. by N., in the
hopes of hearing the fog gun on Lundy Island. At

11.20 land was discovered overhead on the star-
board bow, the engines were immediately stopped
and reversed, but instantly the vessel struck. At
this time the pilot states that he thought he was
six or seven miles N.E. of Lundy. It appears from
the evidence that this vessel had been swung at
Greenock for the adjustment of her compasses, of
which she had three on deck. It also appears that
after leaving the Clyde, the only reliable compass
according to the masters' opinion, was that in the
after binnacle, immediately before the wheel on the
poop. The foremost compass placed on the deck-
house before the engines—an azimuth, and in-
tended for a standard—was rendered useless by the
vibration of the ship when under weigh. The
midship compass was placed so near the cookhouse
and combings of the stoke-hole, which are both of
iron, that the master considered it insufficient,
though it, as well as the other compass, had been
duly compensated by magnets when the ship was
swung. There is great reason to think, however,
judging from the courses steered and the fatal re-
sult that ensued, that this compass, though dis.
regarded, was the most correct of the three. I
must here notice, that they were all stated to have
agreed with each other when the ship was lying
in Cardiff dock. But throughout no reliance seems
to have been placed on the maindeck compass. It
was stated in evidence that it differed two points to
the southward from the steering compass, by which
the course was laid. It must also be noticed that
the pilot was of opinion that the steering compass
was correct from running the distance from Break-
sea Point to the Nash Light, an opinion which he
communicated to the master. From a careful re.
view of all the circumstances, I am led to the con-
clusion that the courses steered from the Sker-
weather were justifiable in ordinary weather, pro-
vided the compass had been correct ; but consider-
ing that there was a thick fog, and that the com-
pass varied as much as two points, it would have
been prudent to have kept the ship more to the
northward, rather than to have altered the course
as the pilot did towards the island when the fog
became so dense. I should also remark that this was
the first iron steamer the pilot had taken down
Channel. With reference to the conduct of the
master, lam disposed to think—and in this my
assessors concur—that, having no previous expe-
rience of the navigation of the Bristol Channel, he
was justified in relying upon the local knowledge
of his pilot. But, knowing that a great difference
in his compasses existed, he ought to have called
the attention of the pilot to the fact when the
weather became so thick that lights or landmarks
were no longer available. By not doing so he pre-
vented the pilot from exercising that caution which
he otherwise would have done. So far the master's
conduct is reprehensible and deserving of censure;
but it is not of so grave a character as to induce me
to suspend his certificate. It has, therefore, been
returned to him. I am glad to report that the hasty
charge made by the master against the crews of
certain Bristol pilot boats of plundering the vessel
after she was wrecked, has been satisfactorily ex-
plained and entirely disapproved. The original
charge was founded in misapprehension of the ser-
vices they were desirous of rendering.—l have, &c ,
ROBERT OLIVER JONES, Stipendiary Magistrats.
We concur in the above report, HY. HARRIS, JOHN
Cow, Nautical Assessors."

G. P. R. JAMES'S NOVELS.—A critic in Saturday's
Spectator observes,—lt chanced to the writer once
to do what probably no other living man over did except
Mr James himself, to read, when sick and bookless abroad,
the en.fire series ! He quitted them with a feeling of regret
that they were not twice as many, that he should not be any
more kept so pleasantly at once from sleep and thinking.
They were full to nausea of all the faults which the trained
critic hates, of characters repeated time after time, descrip-
tions loaded down with words, " morals" forced on the
reader with impertinent obtrusiveness, But they were
pleasant reading nevertheless. The excessive flow of words,
a flow wholly unequalled except in Fenimore Cooper's later
novels, is not verbosity but rather garrulity, the talk not of
an empty-beaded man but of a man accustomed to take too
much time, to tell his story in detail, to recount, as Eng-
lish peasants still do if they have any adventures to relate.