The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-20 00:00:00

THE LOSS OF THE - CAPTAIN.

The naval court-martial into the loss of M.S. Cap-
tain will be opened at Portsmouth to-day. Sir Spencer
Robinson and Mr. E. J. Reed will, it is believed, give
evidence, in order that a full account of the Captain's
peculiarities of build and arrangement may be placed on
official record.

By the arrival of the Lord Warden and Bellerophon,
some relics of H.M.S. Captain have been received ; the
launch, gig, and other boats have been sent to the Ports-
mouth Dockyard, having been picked up amidst all
the rough weather that proved fatal to the noble ship
herself.

Captain Wilson, RN., writes on the loss of the Captain
as follows :—" As many of your contemporaries describe
the Captain as having a free-board from nine to ten
fee:: (which, had the unfortunate ship possessed
it, would have, comparatively speaking, made,
her less dangerous), I beg to acquaint you that the
Admiralty insisted on a free-board of 8 feet when her de-
sign was submitted to them by Captain Coles. Now, it is
a well-known fact that the Captain, with all her stores,
guns, ammunition, &c., swam two feet, or within an inch
or so, deeper than she should have done. This reduced
her free-board, or height of deck out of water, to six feet
or thereabouts. The Times says she had nine feet, and the
Illustrated London News ten feet. I therefore think, sir, you
willbe glad to know the truth. The court-martial which will
soon assemble to try the only remaining officer (Mr. May,
gunner) and seventeen seamen for the loss of their ship, will
doubtless bring to light other facts in connection with her
foundering. It is all very well to say that low free-boards
make a steady gun-platform ; but if it will not withstand
the unruly waves of the broad Atlantic, then the sooner
we adopt my breastwork plan the better.
Captain Marryatt, R.N. refuting the allegation that
the vessel was lost through bad seamanship, says :—" As
Burgoyne was on deck at the time the ship went down, the
opinion as to unseamanlike management can only
apply to him. As a midshipman I never came across
his equal in his determination to make him-
self thoroughly acquainted with all the, details
of a sailor's profession. If any piece of uncommon
work was to be done, ' Billy' Burgoyne would be found
there, while others were amusing themselves on
shore ; and often as a youngster have I envied
him the knowledge he gained by his perseverance. At
an age when many men are hardly at home in carrying on
the ordinary duties of an officer of the watch, Burgoyne
sought the difficult position of commander of a line-of-
batle ship,—generally held by men ten or fifteen years his
senior—and this station his devotion to his profession in
boyhood enabled him to fill with great credit. He was
hardly ever unemployed, and consequentlysained experience
year by year; and if there is any truth in the saying that
"the boy is father to the man," that experience did
not fall upon barren ground. I feel strongly, and perhaps
write BO ; but I consider the letter (of Captain Bed-
ford Pita) useless as throwing any new light upon this
national misfortune. It seems therefore uncalled for, and
certainly wanting in taste, as adding a new burden to
those already too heavy to bear, which the relations and
friends of many brave men are called upon to suffer. I
am, however, happy inthe belief, sir, that the writer of this
letter, if he gives the matter another thought, will regret
having written it."

The Captain, when she foundered, had between 300 and
400 tons of coal on board.— Western Morning News.

THE CRUISE OF THE LORD WARDEN.

The Lord Warden, 18, screw armour-plated ship, Cap-
tain Thomas Brandreth, flagship of Admiral Sir Alex-
ander Milne, K.C.8., arrived at Spithead on the evening
of September 16, in company with the Bellerophon and
Bristol, from the Mediterranean. It is reported that she
will shortly be paid off at Portsmouth, and will be re-
commissioned and ready for sea by the end of October.
The Lord Warden was commenced in 1863, and launched
in May, 1865, from Chatham Dockyard, and was first
commissioned at Devonport, July 23, 1867, by
Captain W. R. Rolland. She left Plymouth on the
28th of September to join the Channel fleet on the
coast of Ireland, and at the close of November was ordered
to the Mediterranean. She left Malta on February 5,
1868, for the Pirus, and experienced a very rough pas-
sage, and on March 28 returned to Malta. She next
successively visited Beyrout, Rhodes, Venice, Augusta
Bay, Naples, Palermo, and the Piraeus. Captain
Brandreth superseded Captain Rolland on April 20,
1869 ; and Sir Alexander Milne shifted his flag from
the Revenge to the Lord Warden on May 26. On
July 7 she left for a summer cruise on the coast
of Sicily, Italy, and the Levant, and at the close of the
following month was at Gibraltar. At the commencement
of the present year, on the annual payment of the wages
of the Lord Warden's crew, nearly one-fourth (.£1,000) of
the whole amount paid was deposited in the Royal Naval
Savings Bank, which was first established about four
years ago on board her Majesty's ship Victoria, at the in-
stance of Lord Clarence Paget. In May the Lord Warden
visited Smyrna, and on the 28th of t h month anchored
off Tenedos. She left Rhodes June 13, and ret urned to Malta
on the 19th. She left again July Bth with the squadron
for the summer cruise, and returned to Malta on the 23rd,
and on Aug. 3, again put to sea. She arrived at Gibral-
tar on the 12th, and on the 19th took her departure with
the combined fleet. Commander C. Pringle, Lieut. C.
Laprimandaye, Capt. R. Woollcombe, R.M.A., Lieut.
John Craigie, R.M. Naval Instructor J. W. Lawless,
Assistant-Paymaster' W. F. Crosthwaite, and Midship-
man Harry H. Glazebrook have served in this ship
throughout her commission.