The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-16 00:00:00

THE LOSS OF THE TORFRIDL

OFFICIAL REPORT.
County Buildings, Glasgow, Jan. 4, 1867.
My Lords—ln compliance with your directions,
we, the undersigned, Richard Stedman Cunliffe and
William M'Lean, jun., esquires, two of her Ma-
jesty's justices of the peace for this county of

Lanark, have held an official investigation into the
circumstances attending the foundering of the
barque Torfrida, which took place on the night

of Friday, 23d November last, about 43 miles
west by south, one quarter south, off the Great
Skellig Light, in the county of Kerry, Ireland. In
this inquiry we have been assisted by Captain Baker
and Captain Swinburne as nautical assessors, and
we have now the honour to report :—The Torfrida

was a wooden barque of the b urthen of 415 tons,
built at Southwick, county of Sussex, in 1866, and
registered in Glasgow the same year. She was 133
feet in length, 28 feet extreme beam, and 16 feet
6 inches depth of hold, and she was classed at
Lloyd's A 1 for eight years. The Torfrida had
made one voyage to the West Indies previous

knock off pumping and to get out the boats, which •
was done, and some portions of the men's traps were I,
put in the longboat and gig ; a few things that had
been put in the jolly boat before were lost, when she
capsized, among which, the captain states, was the
ship's logbook. At about 9t09 30 p.m. all hands
got into the boats, shoved off, and remained within
sight of the ship until 11 p.m., when she was seen to
go down suddenly by the head. When the boats left
there was a very light breeze fair for the laud,
with a considerable swell on. This swell had
caused the ship to roll heavily, and to strain consi-
derably since Thursday morning, the 22d, tending,
no doubt, to increase the leakage. After the ship
went down sail was made on the boats ; they shaped a

course about E. by N. for the land, which they
reached at four pan. the next day, the 24th, and
landed safely in Ballinskelligs Bay. Two hours
after they made sail in the boats a fresh breeze
sprang up, which enabled them to sail a distance of
about 43 miles in 17 hours without using their oars.
The crew appear to have been an able-bodied set
of men, with no complaint on their part as to
treatment, or the quantity or quality of the pro-
visions on board. The Torfrida was a temper-
ance ship. In revising this case the Court think
there are several points upon which it is neces-
sary to give an opinion. In the first place, the Court
is satisfied that the Torfrida was a well-built ship,
and securely fastened ; and by the evidence of
Lloyd's Surveyor, whose duty it was to satisfy him-
self that she was so, it was proved that she was in
many parts more strongly built than the require-
ments of the rule at Lloyd's demanded, and that
she obtained a certificate A 1 for eight years ; and
that, although she met with so sad a fate on her se-
cond voyage, the Court cannot attribute it to any
defect in her construction. The Court, however,
came to the conclusion that, under the special cir-
cumstances of this case, it was reprehensible to re-
load the ship with so much pig iron when it was
found out on her putting back in the first instance,
when in dry dock, that the ship had strained very
much, and actually had sunk amidships, proving, to
the satisfaction of all the experts who saw her, that
she was in a very weak condition ; and although
many necessary repairs were carried out, and, to all
appearance, the original shape of the vesselregained,
it would have been prudent, in the opinion of the
Court, to have reloaded the ship with a much less
quantity of pig iron. No second opinion can exist
as to the fact of her having been excessively laden
with dead weight at Glasgow in the first instance.
The Court is also of opinion that it would be more
prudent if all wooden vesels, as a rule, did not take
more than their registered tonnage of pig iron in
addition to their cargo. The Torfrida, going on a voy-
age to New York, without any means of making sig-
nals by night or day in the event of accident of any
kind, or distress, appeared to the court very repre-
hensible indeed, as many valuable lives and much
property were jeopardised by such a grave omission
in the ship's requirements. In considering the con-
duct of the master of the Torfrida, the Court felt
bound to find him in default for want of energy in
not making the attempt to work the four pumps
together, as suggested by the carpenter, and also for
not having hoisted his ensign union down at his
masthead when the steamer hove in sight. Had he
made both these efforts without success, in the opinion
of the Court he would have been justified in aban-
doning the ship. In giving judgment in this case
the court took into consideration the exhausted state
of the crew and the dangerous condition of the ship
when the master ordered the crew into the boats,
which order was judicious, as proved by th'e' ship
foundering so soon after. We have, therefore, with
the concurrence of the two nautical assessors, sus-
pended the certificate of Mr. Gilbert Christopher
Scallow for three calendar mouths from this date.
-We have, &c.,

WILLIAM APLEAN, Jun., J.P,
RICHARD S. CUNLIFFE, J.P.
We concur in the above report.

R. B. BAKER, Nautical Assessors,
Thos. A. SWINBURNE,
Glasgow, Jan. 4, 1867.

The " Standard" on Impeac'Jment.

A strangely-worded telegram from the Washing-
ton correspondent of the 7 ivies—without date—

and made up, as one might expect, from a person
so unaccustomed to forward telegrams as a Times
correspondent in America, has here had a consider-
able effect. American stocks became flat and de-

dined, and the Standard wrote an article, showing
how " the beginning of the end" of the United

States Constitution had come. The queerly-worded
telegram announced the startling fact that a mea-

sure directly pointing to the Impeachment of the
PRESIDENT had been carried by 108 Ayes, to 38
Noes. This is the first step, the message adds, to
an impeachment, which the Radicals are determined
to press. " Who would have expected," exclaims
the indignant Standard, " that the men who held
the unpardonable sin of politics to consist in treason
to the old Constitution would be in the year 1867
prepared to risk a coup d'etat in order to depose the
PRESIDENT who obtained their votes in 1864 ?" We
confess we cannot understand what the Standard
means. What is the connection between the men
alluded to in the first part of the sentence and
those prepared to risk the coup d'etat? For what
object is the coup d'etat to be risked ? The
PRESIDENT who was elected in 1864 is, we
trust, iu a better world, and we cannot see how
the action of these voters could affect him. Mr.
JOHNSON succeeded to the Presidency by a most
unlooked-for contingency, and not by the votes of
his fellow-citizens. " The world," continues the
Standard, " has seen few more remarkable instances
" of the versatility of politicians ; humanity has
" rarely been scandalised by the exhibition of more
" unblushing cynicism by the professors of Liberalism
46 and philanthropy." A coup d'etat directed against
a saint in heaven would certainly be an instance of
the versatility of politicians, -and undoubtedly
humanity would be scandalised by such an exhibi-
tion ; but, Congress vindicating its supremacy
against a person who attained to the office of
PRESIDENT in an unlooked-for manner, might
direct its wrath and indignation without exciting all
these dreadful feelings. The Standard is filled with
sorrow at the destruction it predicts of the Consti-
tution. There is little fear of any great harm to
liberty resulting from this quarrel. Liberty is the
sentiment implanted in the minds of the American
people. In striving to attain its fullest develop-
ment all sorts of blunders not only have been, but
undoubtedly will continue to be, perpetrated. Often
the people are compelled to grope along in the dark
though the goal be clear and bright enough before
them. So long as the true sentiment is firmly im-

planted iu the national mind there can be little fear

of the result, however greatly President JOHNSON or
the Republican Congress may blunder in the steps they
are now taking. Indeed, such contests do but ex-
pose weak points, and lead to useful renovations.
President JOHNSON committed a fatal mistake in
his electioneering tour, and Congress has reaped the
benefit. Congress may now be making as great a
mistake, and, if so, it will suffer and the PRESIDENT
gain. Both parties may be taught moderation by
stern necessity. We have little doubt that Con-
gress is quite as likely to blunder as the PRE-
SIDENT ; and if this step be a mistake, it will
very quickly obtain the results of its own intem-
perate conduct. A great deal is said about
the balance of power being destroyed. This again
is an obvious error. The balance is in the hands
of the public, who turn the scale either way by
, throwing in a little of their own weight. A constitution
is no Divine document, nor do the laws of the United
States profess to be like those of the Medes and
Persians, unchangeable. The House of Representa-
tives has an undoubted right to prefer charges
against a PRESIDENT. The Senate is unquestion-
ably the body before whom such charges are to be .
brought. Instead of being unconstitutional, all this
is strictly in accordance with the Constitution. The
Standard argues that an unjust and arbitrary PRE-
SIDENT should not be cited before the national tri-
bunal until his term of office is expired, and it con-
siders that the brief duration of the PRESIDENTIAL
office corroborates its statement. This statement,
which resolves itself into a palpable absurdity, is
a good sample of the style of the article. The
provision for pulling up au unruly PRESIDENT was
framed to prevent the man erecting himself into