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

Tllll LOSS OF THE AVA.

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 Ava, have
made the following report to the Board of Trade
" Greenwich Police-court, J 11137
1, 1808.
"My Lords,—ln compliance with your lordships
directions, and with the assistanceotCapt.W. H
•
Walker, appointed to act as Nautical Assessor,
have made inquiry respecting the loss of the Pe-
ninsular and Oriental Navigation Company's steam-
ship Ava, off the coast of Ceylon,. on the evening of
the 16th Feb. last, anal transmt 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
The Ava was an iron screw-
opinion thereon.
steamer of 933 tons register, barue-rigged, with
three masts, and engines of 320 bore power. She
Was built at Glasgow in 1855. She was in every
respect duly equipped, properly mamsed, and sea-
worthy, and the engines in good order. In this
condition she left Calcutta on the 10th of Fob. last
on her homeward voyage to Suez. She carrie,-1 the
government mails. Her passengers and crew con-
sisted of about 240 souls, and she had specie on
value 260,000/. 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 examination in steam. He has been 11 years in
the employment 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 Ave.
"It is usual for these steamers, during their
homeward voyage, to touch only at Madras and
I'o.lll dc the ::,-nvornr-,-,it, under their
contract wiib. the Peninsular and O:iental Com-
pany, possess the right to direct any of their
steamers to call at other intermediate ports, Cap-
tain Kirton accordingly, before leaving balcutta,
had been ordered by his superintendent to land at
Trincomalee about 5,0001. government Measure.
But for this order and the consequent deviation
from the ordinary mate, the course of the Ave
would not have lain within 50 or 60 miles of Trin-
conaalee, or of the spot where she was subsequently
lost. At 4 p.m. on the February the Ava lett
Madras Boads for Trincce.ualee. Captain Kirton
had applied to the superintetadent of the company
at Madras for permission to leave at 2 p.m., in
order that he might reach Triissomalee before night-
fall on the 16th. The perroissi.on was not granted,
in consequence, as he understoo 4, of an objection
by the post-office authorities.
"At noon on the 16th February' Capt. Kirton,
by observation which appears to have been accu-
rate, ascertained the Ava to be in lat. 0.54 N.,
long. 81.10 E. Her course wag then shaped for
Trincomlee, steering S. 6 degs. E. trine 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 had not
expected to sight land so soon, and attributing the
circumstance, no doubt correctly, to a wests-rly cur-
rent which had carried the ship towards the ,shore,
he had hauled out to S. 10 deg. E. true. At five
o'clock, finding the current setting in shore w3s-
terly at nearly two miles as hour, the captaiir
hauled her out to S. 38 E. true. He 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 hauled th© ship a
point in shore, his object being to run down off the
port of Trincomalee within signal distance 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 craw, 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 on a ridge ex-
tending three-quarters of a niile 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 iu a `V. 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 in
which, the Trincomalee light on Flagstaff Point
should have been seen by him if he had not been
carried out of his course by the current ; that he
therefore mistook it for the light oa 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
properly lighted and hoisted at the top of the flag-
staff, he thinks he must have seen it before the ship
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
i
hour.' The evidence of the chief officer s : 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 Capt. 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 of 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
Flag tall Point, which stands (or should stand) on
an elevation. of 206 feet.

„‘.” On,the other baud, it appears tolerably certain
that the light on Plalrataff-Point has been for some
time in a moet defective state. I beg to call your
lord.ships' 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 ,20Q 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 1 visited it in Sept.
last it was lying on its pedestal ; the whole affair
was out of order.' And Capt. Kirton states that the
week after the wreck he saw the 'anthem (the re-
flectors of which were covered with a black smoke)
standing iu the daytime on a brick pedestal, and
that he was informed that the machinery for raising
it on the flag-stair was out of order. He further
states that it had been surveyed and condemed some
months before.

"On the whole, I doubt whether, so far as the
light .itself is concerned, Captain Kirtmt bad
sufficient means for distinguishing the false light
froa the true one. But in truth neither the strong
inshore current nor the mistake as to the light, nor
hoth these causes combined, would have occasioned
slur` 5 fho orrliunry mecaution of
taking soundings had 'seen adopted. by -
ton. The chief oflicr states that at five p.m. he
estimated that the ship was eight miles distant
from the land. Now if the ship was not more than
eight miles from share at live p.m., she was then
within soundings, for a reference to the chart will
show soundings at that point extend fully eight
twits 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 thtee
hours would have obtained sounding?, and have
shown to Captain Kirton that he was gradually
nearing a rocky coast, and would have enabled him
to avoid the danger.

Kirion asserts that in driving 'a
mail
steamer he would much sooner hantoff the land
out of soundings than run along the shore close in
and lead,' And no doubt he is correct theore,i-

ally.• in preferring the formerconrse. But when he
adds, That .e thought he was acting on this view,
and that h e felt sure of his position at being out of
soul idings that he considered it would have been
useless to heave the lead, I must observe that the
pres ent case seems to be pre-eminently one which,
war aed by the variable and increasing current that
he a tight be mistaken in his distance, and having
in th.et darkness no other means of verifying his
position.,lthere was the greates t reason for adopting
the only caution, viz., the use of the lead. He
states, ` M V object was to get to Trincomalee as
soon as pos,,ible. If I hid 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 ran 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 o,.Nlhng your lordships' attention to the fact that
in additjon to the evidence of the imperfect and
faulty cones ition of the light at Flagstaff Point,
which is stateu to have been ' a source of continued
complaint from every ship that came into the
place,' I have founc: it impossible to ascertain the
limits within which, ;then properly lighted and
hoisted, the light is visible. It may be worth while
to consider whether this should ttot be more clearly
stated in the books and charts pliblished for the
;;•,:i(l3nc- of mariners:.
" I beg to transmit herewith Capt. r._;.:..1-2.1 9T,r-
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-
pcatation for skill and ability hitherto borne by
Capt. Kirton.—l have the honour to be, my lords,
your lordships' obedient servant,
" HENRY SELFE
To the Lords Commissioners of the
Privy council for Trade.
" I concur in tali* report.
" W. H. WALKER."
In consequence of the Clefault attributed to Cap-
tain Kirton in the above rep,grt, the Board of Trade
have suspended his certificate rc? r six months.