The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-22 00:00:00

OFFICIAL REPORT.

SHIP ELIZA, OF LIVERPOOL.
Greenwich Police-court, Jan. 13, 1862,
My Lords,—l have the honour to transmit for your Lord-
ships' information, minutes of evidence and the accompany-
ing report of the formal investigation in regard to the aban-
donment of the barque Eliza, of Liverpool, which, pursuant
to your Lordships' directions, has been made by me, in con-
junction with Capt. Harris as nautical assessor. The barque
Eliza of 447 tons burthen, was built in Nova Scotia in 1858,
and registered in Liverpool in 1861. She was classed A 1
for four years from 1858 in the Veritas (French Lloyd's),
and was in the last year of her letter. She was insured in
Liverpool in the sum of £2,200, and was part owned, to the
extent of 12-64ths, by the master, Capt. Wm. Raisbeck,
who holds a certificate of competency, dated Aug. 18, 1855.
The Eliza had a crew of 12 persons, exclusive of the mas •
ter. She appears to have been a strong, well-bu It ship,
tight, and well found. The cargo, consisting of portions
of an iron wet dock, manufactured by Messrs. Rennie
for the Spanish Government, was shipped with due care
to the stowage. She left the Downs on the morning
of the 28th of November last, on her voyage to Cartha-
gena, in Spain, with a fair wind from E. to N.E., and
passed Beachy Head at 4 p.m, the same day. About mid-
night the wind shifted to the S.W., and freshened till 4
a.m. of the 25th, when they shortened sail. At 7a m. the
pumps were sounded, and the ship was found to have made
some water, about 2 feet 6 inches—of no great moment
when we find that she sucked at 9 inches. At 8 a.m. all
hands went to the pumps, which sucked after two hours'
pumping. At 10 a.m. the foresail was furled, and the ship
was then under close-reefed topsails, and from this time till
she was abandoned, at 5 p.m. next day, there was no at-
tempt to make sail upon her. At this time (10 a.m. of the
25th) some part of her cargo was found to be in motion with
the rolling of the ship. It may be here mentioned that the
cargo consisted of pieces of iron, of various shapes and sizes,
such as iron plates, ribs and bars of angle iron, cylinders, &c.
The chief part of the cargo, about 400 tons, stowed in the
lower hold, was firmly secured, by means of planks, stan-
chions, and wedges, from the under side of the hold-beams;
but the upper part of the cargo, which was stowed upon
the beams, was not secured in the same manner, and would,
when the ship rolled, no doubt shift about a little, and
make a noise, so as to cause possibly some alarm; but there
is no reason to believe that any serious injury was caused
to the ship by this means. Under these circumstances,
and in the threatening state of the weather, at 1 p.m., the
ship being then abreast of Brighton, the master prudently
resolved to bear up and run back to the Downs. At 6 p.m.
the ship was brought to the wind off Dungeness, the light
bearing N.E, by N., distant five or six miles, and permitted
to drift up Channel, wearing from timg,to time to keep her
in the fairway, the intention being to make the Downs at
daylight. During the night Dungeness and the South
Foreland Lights, as also shore lights at Folkestone and
Dover, were kept in view. About 5 30, when abreast of
Dover, the ship was wore on the starboard tack, and stood
out till about 6 30 a.m., when she was wore round on the
port tack, and about 7 a.m., just at daylight, she is stated
to have been distant about one mile or a mile and a half
from the South Sand Ii ead Light, the South Foreland
Light then bearing W.N.W., and the South Sand Head
Light N.E., the wind being S.S.W. by W. These
are the bearings as stated in the log and in the master's
protest; but the master himself, in his examination, was
desirous of casting a doubt upon the correctness of the en-
try of the South Sand Head Light as being N.E. Accord -
ing to his statement, the South Sand Head Light bore
N.N.E. I see no reason, however, to doubt the accuracy of
the entry in the log, and consequently, had sail been made
on the ship at the time, she was in a proper position for en-
tering the Downs, for which the wind was fair ; and, as the
mainsail had been furled with the reef in it, the ship would
have very quickly gone ahead and reached her anchorage,
which was then only 21 miles distant. This omission was
a " default" on the part of the master, and was followed
up by a still more palpable default on his part, for
when he found himself, as he says, too far to
the eastward to weather the South Sand Head Light, he
should have put his ship before the wind and run along the
back of the Goodwin Sands for Margate Roads, or any safe
anchorage in the entrance to the Thames. An hour or an
hour and a half would have placed him in perfect safety.
Instead of this course, he wore ship on the starboard
tack, standing off shore S. by E. for four hours, until noose,
when he sighted the French coast somewhere about %ads,
distant six or seven miles. The reason he allegees for stand-
ing on this course so long was in order to get to windward,
so as to be able to weather the South Sand Head Light;
but he seems not to have reflected that, having no sails set
to keep the ship to windward, his leeway and the whole
strength of the ebb tide, then setting to the northward and
eastward on the starboard beam, were putting her fast to
leeward. In fact, by his own admission he did not know
in what direction the ebb tide set; and though he consulted
his tide tables, as he says, ho was between three and four
hours out in his calculation of the time of tide. With re-
ference to the tide, it may be as well to mention that by
the Admirality tide tables it was high water at Dover on
the morning of the 26th of November at 4 40 a.m., and at
Calais at 5 17. These defaults are of such a grave cha-
racter, and evince such an amount of incompe-
tency, that they demand notice, though only inci-
dentally connected with the particular question in
this case—viz., the abandonment of the ship. At
noon, the French coast being six or seven miles distant, the
master wore ship on the port tack, heading N.W. 1 N., and
in half an hour afterwards, it being then probably dead low
water, the ship struck on a sandbank seven miles N. by W.
of Calais, probably the continuation of the Dych, on part of
which, at low water, there is only three to three and a half
fathoms water, When she struck the boatswain sounded the
pumps, and, finding she was making no more water than
usual, he came aft, and as he says, pacified the master. At this
time, certainly, if not earlier, the master seems to have con-
ceived the intention of abandoning the ship. He ordered the
gig to be launched, and fetched his chronometer from the
cabin, but finding the ship apparently uninjured, the boat,
which had been towing asternwith a man id her, was ordered
to be hoisted in, but she was stove in hauling her up, and
went adrift, The ship continued this N.W. IN. course,
still under double-reefed topsails only, till 4 p.m., when a
vessel, which proved to be the barque Magdalena, of Bre-
men, hove in sight, and was hailed by the master, and en-
treated by him to take them on board, as their ship was
sinking. The Magdalena hove to about a quarter of a
mile to leeward, and the crew of the Eliza went on board
her in three trips of their own pinnace, the master going
in the sec nd trip. Before leaving the ship the master,
as he tells us, went and sounded the well (with what
object it is not easy to comprehend), and found, as he
says, five feet water in her. He would not say, how-
ever, positively there were more than four feet water.
When abandoned, the Eliza was left with the
maintopsail on the cap and the foretopsail set, with
the helm lashed a-lee, in which state she was found
some hours afterwards by Calais boatmen, and carried into
that port. So fully bent upon the abandonment of the ship
does the master seem to have been, that he makes no re-
quest or suggestion to the master of the Magdalena as to
staying by the Eliza, or making any attempt to save her,
though the weather in less than an hour's time bad become
quite moderate, and cleared up so that the North Foreland
Light was seen at 20 miles distance. No evidence has been
produced as to the state of the Eliza when picked up and
brought into Calais. We may however conclude from the
deposit ion of the Eliza's carpenter, John Mercer, who went
on board, her in Calais harbour some days afterwards, that
she had sustained no internal injury, and that the leak was
not very considerable. Though we are without any direct
evidence as to the extent to which the master had rea
sonable ground for supposing her to be in a sinking
state, yet there are various circumstances from which it
may be fairly inferred that the severity of the
weather and the dangerous condition of the ship are both
greatly exaggerated in the log and protest, and still
more so in the deposition of the mate and the excenina-
tion of the master. Thus, with respect to the, leak, it is
clear that, from first to last, spells of two hours at the pumps
with short intervals, were sufficient to keep the water under
till the time of the abandonment, the pumps having sucked
about an hour and a half or two hours before they left her.
Yet it is stated in the log more than once that "the water
continued to gain on them." Again, with regard to the
state of the weather, a pretty accurate test of this may be
formed in the facts—first, that the gig is towed for two or
three miles with a man in her; and again, that the pinnace
makes three trips to and from the Magdalena with one pair
of oars and without a rudder; yet there are repeated entries
in the log of " Use sea and gale still increasing up to the
time of tiss,at quitting the ship." The same observation ale.
Pn'ee to the entries respecting the shifting of the cargo, as,
for instance, the following entireyih"oTiehbeodcyarogfothsehcifalng
from one side to the .Ther in such a manner as to make it
impossible for the ship to hole +ogreotlhleorfratuteeh gp e.:;"_a.onod
goingthis o tahbeornetnttwr ye—fe:twith apparently
every
Such
inflated expressions inserted in the log book after the
evideanmee
donment of the ship, betray a consciousness of a Weak l-
,tuthearte,fourned,
under
requiring extraordinary justification. case
the abandonment of the
opinion, from a careful review of tk-
the circumstances of eise base,
Eliza was unneeteeeeey, and not justified by the condition of
the ship ar'', state of the weather ; and that had the master
remained in the ship she would have been saved by him,
instead of being picked up abandoned and carried into Ca-
lais, and his omitting to do so was therefore a further de-
fault on his part. It is proper to add that, however extraor-
dinary and inexcusable the conduct of the master may ap-
pear to be in the several particulars nientioucl, there is uo

ground for suspecting that he was in any degree actuated
by a fraudulent motive. The master's certificate is sent
with this report.—l have, &c.,

JAMES TRAILL.
I concur in the above report.
HY. HARRIS, Nautical Assessor.
To the Lords of the Committee of the
Privy Council for Trade, &c.