The Sun.
London, England, 1858-07-08 00:00:00

THF, LOSS OF THE. ArA.

Mr. Selfe, of the Thames Police Court, and Capt.
Walker, the Nautical Assessor at the recent in-
quiry respecting the loss of the Peninsular and
Oriental Navigation Company's steamer Ave, have
made the following report to the Board of Trade :
" Greenwich Police-court, July 1, 1858.
. "My Lords, —.lu compliance with your lordships
directions, and with the assistance of Capt. W. H.
Walker, appointed to act as Nautical Assessor, I
have made inquiry respecting the loss of the Pe-
ninsularand Oriental Navigation Company's steam-
ship Ava, off the coast of Ceylon, on the evening of
the 16th Feb. last, and I treinsmit herewith the de-
positions of the witnesses examined before me. I
have also to submit for your lordships' consideration
the following summary of the evidence with my
opinion thereon. The Ava was au iron screw-
;steamer of 933 tons register, barque-rigged, with
three masts, and engines of 320 horse power. She
was built at Glasgow in 1855. She was in every
' respect duly equipped, properly manned, and sea-
worthy, and the engines in good order. In this
ecndition she left Calcutta on the 10th of Feb. last
on her homeward voyage to Suez. She carried the
government mails. Her passengers and crew con-
sisted of about 240 souls, and she had specie on
board. value 260,0001. She was commanded by Cap-
tain C. Kirton, aged 30. Capt. Kirton has a mas-
ter's certificate of competency, and has also passed
an exami;tation in steam. He has been 11 years in
the emplo vment of the Peninsular and Oriental
Navigation Company, during the last year in the
capacity of commander, and a part of that time on
the Suez line. Captain Kirton has made several
voyages in the Indian seas, but this was his first
voyage in the Alv•
"It is usual for these steamers, during their
homeward voyaee, to touch only at Madras and
Point de Galle, but the government, under their
contract wiih the P‘snmsular and Oriental Com-
pany, possess the ri:e,ht to direct any of their
steamers to call at other intermediate ports. Cap-
tain Kirton accordingly, before leaving Calcutta,
had been ordered by his st.'perintendent to land at
Trincomalee about 5,0001. government treasure.
But for this order and the ,lonsequent deviation
from the ordinary route, the course of the Ave
would not have lain within 50 o.r 60 miles of Trin-
comalee, or of the spot where she was subsequently
lost. At 4 p.m. on the 15th Feb: to try the Ava lett
Madras Roads for Trincomalee. Captain Kirton
had applied to the superintendent o! the company
at Madras for permission to leave a..t 2 p.m., in
order that he might reach Trincomalee before night-
fall on the 16th. The permission was slot granted,
in consequence, as he understood, of an objection
by the post-office authorities.
"At noon on the 16th February Capt. Kirton,
by observation which appears to have berm accu-
rate, ascertained the Ava to be in lat. 9.54 N.,
long. 81.10 E. Her course was then shaped for
Trincomlee, steering S. 6 degs. E. true course. At
4 p.m. land was sighted about four points on the
starboard bow, the distance being estimated by the
captain at 12 or 13 miles. Capt. Kirtou bad mot
expected to sight laud so soon, and attributing the
circumstance, no doubt correctly, to a westerly cur-
rent which had carried the ship towards the shore,
he bad hauled out to S. 10 deg. E. true. At five
o'clock, finding the current setting in shore wes-
terly at nearly two miles an hour, the captain
hauled her out to S. 38 E. true. e states that,
being according to his calculation at this time 10
miles from land (the chief officer estimates the dis-
tance at eight miles), he thought this course would
take him off Trincomalee clear of all soundings.
At sunset, 6 o'clock, the sails were taken down, but
the ship continued steaming at full speed upwards
of 10 knots an hour. The weather was fine but
cloudy, and land perfectly visible. Her course from
5 o'clock was not altered till half--past 7 p.m., when
a light bearing S.S. W. was sighted. The captain
and his officers supposed this to be Trincomalee
Light on Flagstaff Point, and, believing himself to
be five miles from land, then haulssd the ship a
point in shore, his object being to run down off the
port of Trincomalee within signal dista.ace to get a
boat off to land the treasure. The ship proceeded
at full speed till she was abreast of the light, when
the captain ordered her to be hauled off four
points, the light then bearing about W.
Before she could be hauled off more than two
points, a rock was seen a-head, which was re-
ported as a boat; the captain perceived it to be
a rock, and immediately gave orders to put the
helm hard a-starboard to stop her, and turn astern
full speed. Almost at that moment, 7.55 p.m., she
struck on a rock under water, where she remained
until she became a total wreck. Every proper exer-
tion appears to have been made by the captain at
and subsequent to the wreck, and his arrangements
for the safety of the passengersand crew, and of the
recovery of such part of the cargo and specie as
was saved, were marked by judgment, skill, and
self-possession. It was found at daylight, from the
ship's position, that she had struck an a ridge ex-
tending three-quarters of a mile from shore, off
Rocky Point, about a mile and a half to the N.W.
of Pigeon Island, and at a spot 11 miles distant
N.W. from where the captain expected her to be.
He admits that he took no soundings whatever,
alleging that he felt certain that he was not within
soundings. On being asked to give his own expla-
nation of the loss of the ship, he assigns the follow-
ing causes :

" 1. That the current in a W. N. W. direction
towards the shore, the rate of which, at 5 o'clock,
he had estimated at about two miles an hour, was,
when the ship struck, running at an increased rate
of four miles an hour, and had carried the ship out
of her course. 2. That the light seen at 7.30 was
seen at the time when, and in the direction iu
whi6h, the Trincomalee light on Flagstaff Point
should have been seen by him if he bad not begin
carried out of his course by the current ; that he
therefore mistook it for the light on Flagstaff Point,
which he says it strongly resembled. He further
asserts that the light on Flagstaff Point was not
properly lighted on that night ; that if it had been
pro es!! f heisted at the top of the flag-
staff, he thinks he must have steu it6.,Cure
struck, and that it would have induced him to alter
his course accordingly.
" With regard to the current, Capt. Kirton was
aware, as his evidence shows, that the currents
vary more off the coast of Ceylon than in any other
place.' Moreover, during the afternoon of the 16th
he twice altered the ship's course towards the east,
in consequence of the increasing strength of the cur-
rent—at 4 o'clock, when he was surprised to disco-
ver the current,' and again at 5 o'clock, when he felt
satisfied that it was to the extent of two miles an
hour.' The evidence of the chief officer is : The
current seemed to me to increase from 4 o'clock as
we came to the southward ; it was stronger at 5
o'clock, and still stronger at 6.' Yet Cape. Kirton
kept the ship in the same course from 5 till he
sighted the false light at half-past seven. With re-
gard to the light mistaken by the captain for the
Trincomalee Light, the evidence is very contradic-
tory. It is asserted by one of the witnesses (Capt.
Johnson) that the false light seen by Capt. Kirton
was a very small feeble light, low on the beach,
and that it could not be mistaken for the light or a
lighthouse. Capt. Haswell, an officer in her Ma-
jesty's navy, and who has a knowledge of that coast,
also states that the light he saw on the beach after
the vessel had struck appeared to be about 15 feet
high, not steady, and certainly not such a light as
could be mistaken for the Trincomalee Light, on
Flagstaff Point, which stands (or should stand) on
an elevation of 206 feet.

"On the other hand, it appears tolerably certain
that the light on Flagstaff Point bas been for some
time in a most defective state. I beg to call your
lordships' particular attention to the evidence of
Capt. Gillson on this point. He states it to be a
very troublesome light, the most troublesome that
he ever met with anywhere. Though supposed to
be 206 feet above the level of the sea, and to show a
distance of 12 or 15 miles, I could not see it till
I got within six miles of it ; it then went out.'
Capt. Haswell states—' The Trincomalee Light is a
very indifferent light. When I visited it in Sept.
last it was lying on its pedestal ; the whole affair
was out of order.' Aud Capt. Kirton states that the
week after the wreck he saw the 'anthem (the re-
flectors of which wete covered with a black smoke)
standing in the daytime on a brick pedestal, and
that he was informed that tho machinery for raising
it on the flag-staff was out of order. He further
states that it bad been surveyed and condemed some
months before.

"On the whole, I doubt whether, so far as the
light itself is concerned, Captain Kirton had
sufficient means for distin,,,ruishing the false light
from the true one: But in truth neither the strong
inshore current nor the mistake as to the light, nor
both these causes combined, would have occasioned
the 1033 of the ship if the ordinary precaution of
taking soundings had been adopted by Capt. Ki:-
ton. The chief officer states that at fere p. m he
estimated that the ship was eight miles distant
from the land. Now if the ship was net more than
eight miles from shore at live p.m., she was then
within soundings, for a reference to the chart will
show soundings at that point extend fully eight
miles from shore. She must have continued within
soundings from five p.m. till she struck at 7.55,
for a distance of about 30 miles. Probably a single
cast of the lead at any time during those three
hours would have obtained sounding::, and have
shoWn to Captain Kirton that he was gradually
nearinc, a rocky coast, and would have enabled him
to Lipid the danger.
" Captain Kirton asserts that in driving a mail
steamer ' he would much sooner haul off the land
out of soundings than run along the shore close in
and lead.' And no doubt he is correct theoreli-.

tally in preferring the former course. But when he
adds that he thought he was acting on this view,
and that he felt sure of his position at being out of
soundings that he considered it would have been
useless to heave the lead, I must observe that the
present case seems to be pre-eminently one which,
warned by the variable and increasing current that
he might be mistaken in his distance, and having
in the darkness no other means of verifying his
position,lthere was the greatest reason for adopting
the only caution, viz., the use of the lead. He
states, My object was to get to Trincomalee as
soon as possible. If I had stopped to take sound-
ings, I should have lost 24 hours at Galle.' It ap-
pears to me that to have taken soundings would
not have delayed him in the rnn to Trincomalee
more than a single hour ; but I need hardly ob-
serve that 24 hours' delay is nothing as compared
to the risk to lives and property which would have
been avoided by the use of the lead.
" Under these circumstances I am bound to re-
port to your lordships my opinion that Captain
Kirkton omitted to take proper precautions—that
instead of continuing the ship's course at full
speed for two hours after dark, he ought to have
slackened speed, to have stopped the ship, and
hove the lead—that had he adopted these proper
and prudent measure the calamity which followed
would have been averted. For these reasons lam
of opinion that the loss of the Ava was caused by
the default of Capt. Kirton, the master.
" I feel that I ought not to close this report with-
out calling your lordships' attention to the fact that
in addition to the evidence of the imperfect and
faulty condition of the light at Flagstaff Point,
which is stated to have been a source of continued
complaint from every ship that came into the
place,' I have found it impossible to ascertain the
limits within which, when properly lighted and
hoisted, the light is visible. It may be worth while
to consider whether this should not be more clearly
stated in the books and charts published for the
guidance of mariners.
" I beg to transmit herewith Capt. Kirton's cer-
tificate, also several testimonials in his favour. To
that, from many of the passengers by the Ava, after
the wreck, I beg to call your lordships' particular
attention, as well as to the evidence of Captain J.
S. Field, to the very high character and great re-
putation for skill and ability hitherto borne by
Capt. Kirton.—l have the honour to bo, my lords,
your lordships' obedient servant,
6 4 HENRY SELFE SELFE.
" To the Lords Commissioners of the
Privy Council fcr Trade.
" I concur in this report.
" W. H. WALKER."

Iu consequence of the default attributed to Cap-
tain Kirton in the above report, the Board of Trade
have suspended his certificate for six months.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.-July 7.

COURT OF EXCHEQUER.

(Sittings at Nisi Prius at Guildhall.—Before Mr.
Baron Bramwell and a Special Jury.)

HAGGER V. BI7SII. -BREACH OF PROMISE OF