The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-22 00:00:00

THE LOSS OF THE STEAMER

DEPTFO.RD.

In the matter of the investigation into the loss of
the screw steamer Deptford, of the port of Sunder-
land, instituted by Mr. J. Hargrave Hamel, at the
instance of the Board of Trade. Report of the pro-
ceedings taken before Mr. John Candlish, Mayor,
and Mr. George Hudson, two of her Majesty's jus-
tices of the peace for the borough of Sunderland, on
the 14th inst. ; Captain Ross, R.N., acting assessor
under an appointment by the Board of Trade. We
the undersigned, justices aforesaid, hereby reports
that in a lengthened examination of witnesses, con-
ducted by Mr. Hamel and cross-examined by Mr.
Kewney, solicitor for Mr. Todd, late master of the
ship, who was ill, it appeared that the said ship,
which was of the register tonnage of 469 tons, after
taking in a cargo of coals at the port of Sunderland,
sailed therefrom for London, with a crew of 15
hands besides the master, in every way fitted for
the voyage, at one o'clock a.m. of the 13th March
last, with the wind at E.N.E., and the weather
hazy. When in a fairway, the vessel, according to
the evidence of the mate, was steered E.S.E. for
about half an hour or three-quarters of an hour, and
then the course was altered by order of the captain
to S.E., which course was continued till about three
o'clock, when the captain ordered the vessel to be
steered S.E. by S., which course was continued
until aboat a quarter to four o'clock, when the course
was again altered to S.S.E., which continued until
four o'clock. There was no increase of the fog or
hazy weather up to 4 o'clock, up to which time the
master had remained on deck, and the mate was
then called up to relieve the master, and the master
gave a course to the mate S.S.E. 1 E., and told the
mate to blow the whistle or danger signal if it con-
tinued thick, and directed him, (the mate) to
call him (the master) if there were any appear-
ance of danger ; no directions, however, were given
to sound, but the lead- lines were on deck ready
for use. The master then (four a.m.) went down
below to bed. The course S.S,E. 4 E. would
appear to have been kept until somewhere about 20
minutes past 6 o'clock, when the man at the wheel
spoke to the mate of having doubts about the com-
passes, and the mate then directed the course to be
altered half a point, i.e. S.E. by S. This course
was kept for about five minutes, when the man at
the wheel told the mate that it looked thicker to-
wards the land than it did seawards, and the mate
then ordered the course to be altered to S.E.,
which was done, and the mate was
looking foward, while the man at the helm was
looking towards the land, and the latter called out,
" My God, there's Whitby Piers !" and on looking
to the other side of the ship the helmsman' observed
Whitby Rock Buoy. The mate cried out, " Star-
board the helm,'' which was done, and instantly an
order was given to stop the engines, but before
either helm or engines could be got to act the vessel
struck, and was fast on Whitby Rock. The master
instantly came on deck, and ordered the sails to be
taken in. He then got assistance from the shore
to lighten the ship of part of her cargo, and even-
tually, by the assistance of two steamtngs, got the
vessel off at 11 a.m. At first the ship did not make
any water, but shortly after the pumps were
sounded, and 18 inches water was found, but not-
withstanding every possible exertion the water
continued to gain on them. It was then deter-
mined to take the assistance of the Ruby steamtug
(one of the tugs which had towed the vessel off the
rocks), in order to tow the vessel into Hartlepool
Harbour, and a tow rope was taken from the tug,
which proceeded in towingfor some time, when the
water still increasing and driving the stokers out of
the hold, and approaching the fires, and the ship
being in danger of foundering (there being 11 feet
of water in the fore hold), the ship's lifeboat was
got out in order to take the crew for safety
to the steamtug, which was done, and the tow
rope being slacked to enable the crew to get on
board the tug, it would appear to have been da-
maged, for in setting away again it broke, and not-
withstanding an attempt gallantly made by the
master and some of the crew in their lifeboat, to
endeavour to get on board, and get another tow rope
attached, nothing could be effected. The weather,
it appeared, had rapidly become worse, and the ship
being within a short distance of the shore, the
master only
saw there was no
chance of
ofh
stave teainsgtmhetusghip7t
butit was necessary for
his own safety to bear away to Hartlepool, and
this he accordingly did, and so the ship Deptford
was lost. A statement was put in before us, made
by the master together with the mate, engineer, and
carpenter, before the Receiver of Wrecks for the
district of Redcar, and also a protest made at Sun-
derland, and there does not seem to be any discre-
pancy between the statements so made as regards
the master, and that of the witnesses examined
before us, so far as the actual knowledge of the cap-
tain went, with the exception of his stating the
wind to be N.E., whilst the mato stated it to be
E. We remark hereafter as to the mate's con-
duct and evidence. We had examined before us,
amongst others, Mr. Hutchinson, mathematical
instrument maker, who adjusted the compasses
on the sth March,- and amongst other deviations
there would be about a quarter of a point devia-
tionthe course the ship took from
suivdesorivatnhcic,rl
southerly
iti
southward. It appears that it is
usual for a card, containing the deviations, to be
given to the master by the instrument maker, to
be placed in the skylight by the captain, and on
this occasion, namely, on
the 6th, Mr. Hutchinson
handed a card of these deviations to the master, but
it_was not hung by him in the skylight as usually