The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-21 00:00:00

company's acting engineer, though declining to take 1
charge of any engine, willingly helped Mr. Scott
Russell with " a pull at the wheel," or, if ke wished
to have messages conveyed, sent them. Mr. Dickson,
the contractors' chief engineer, considered himself
simply as a passenger, but undertook the manage-
ment
of as engine notwithstanding, and seems dur-
ing the voyage to have been one of the most busy
and active men on board. Mr. J. Roy Campbell,
the chairman and representative of the company,
throws the entire responsibility of the management
of the vessel during the trial trip on the contrac-
tors, and asserts that there was a complete under-
standing between them and the directors on this
head. Mr. Scott Russell, on the other hand, affirms
that he had nothing whatever to do with the trial
trip, either directly or indirectly, as a matter of
business. The natural conclusion to be drawn from
this contradictory evidence is, that there was really
no one officially in charge of the engines from the
time the vessel left the Nore till her arrival at Wey-
mouth. All on board, even the engineers, were
simply passengers, bound on a pleasure trip—the
latter, however, being perfectly willing to make
themselves generally useful; give " a pull at the
wheel," or "regulate the throttle valve" if necessary.
Under these circumstances it is only wonderful the
vessel got on as well as she did, or, indeed, at all.
Accidents of all kinds were to be expected, and
would almost inevitably happen if there was really-
no one officially in charge of such now, extensive,
and complicated machinery. And the evidence
seems certainly to show that this important prelimi-
nary point was not settled, ot at least not settled in
the clear, formal, and decisive manner it ought to
have been. No document has yet been produced to
throw light on this vexed question, and even the
existence of letters referring to it is only hinted at
as possible or probable.
Though the formal responsibility was not settled
with sufficient distinctness, or secured by sufficient
sanctions, the evidence, we must say, goes strongly
to show that the real responsibility was with the
contractors and their agents. We have no wish to
prejudge a question that may yet come before the
legal tribunals of the country. And large allow•
ante of course must be made for the anxiety which
all connected with the vessel naturally feel to escape,
if possible, from the responsibility of such a calamity.
But it is a public duty to report on the facts of the
case as given in evidence. These facts leave little
room fn. doubt as to who was really managing the
engines during the trip to Portland. Mr. Scott
Russell allows that he was on the bridge nearly all
the way. And that he was there in the capacity of
driver of the engines is plain from the next sen-
tence of the CT idence, in which he says explicitly
" that the pilot requested him to drive the paddle
engines faster, but he declined to do this." So ab-
solute, indeed, was his authority, that when the
same request was made by the captain he still re-
fused compliance. " His reason was that the con-
structor of the screw engines, Mr. Blake, had agreed
with him that it was not wise to strain their engines
on that occasion." This scarcely reads like the lan-
guage of one who had officially nothing whatever
to do with the vessel. It seems rather to describe
" an ordinary trial trip," in which Mr. Russell says
" the ship is steered by the builder, there being
generally an agreement as to speed." All the lead-
ing witnesses confirm the view which Mr. Russell
thus unwittingly gives of the position he held during
the voyage. They all say that he was on the bridge
directing the engines. Mr. Roy-Campbell, the
Chairman of the Directors, says, "At the time of
the accident, Mr. Scott Russell gave all the direc-
tions respecting the paddle engines, and had done
so throughout the whole of the trip, and had his
own representative attending to the engines." The
commander of the vessel, Captain Harrison says :
" Mr. Russell was in charge of the paddle engines,
and Mr. Langdon, of Watt and Co., in charge of
the screw. I know that from my own observa-
tion. Mr. Russell passed down verbal instruc-
tions to those in charge of the paddles." The facts
proved with regard to the management of the en-
gines certainly confirm this statement. Mr. Rus-
sell's immediate agent and representative, Mr.
Dickson, for example, worked one of the engines
during the whole trip, and the other acting engi-
neers were all apparently taken from his yard. On
the other hand, no single fact was adduced to show
that the company's leading engineer, Mr. M'Len-
nun, took any part in the management of the en-
gines during the trip. Mr. Brunel had expressly
told him not to do so before starting, and this in-
junction was repeated by the commander of the
vessel, Captain Harrison. "My instructions," he
says, " to Mr. I\PLennan, the chief engineer, were
not to interfere with the working of the engines at
all, b it to has(' over his staff of assistants to the
contractors."
The fact seems to be that while the contractors
really worked the vessel, partly by the company's
staff; each party tried to evade as much as possible
the responsibility of the management; and the
explosion was the fatal result of this wretched
struggle. This terrible accident is directly trace-
able to the want of system and organisation in the
engineering staff. Each man did what was right
in his own eyes, without reference either to those
above or those below him. No regular instructions
were issued from the leading engineers to their
depsn dents, and no reports were made fram the
hitter to the former. Had this been done the ex-
plosion never could have taken place. We can
trace it exactly to the point where the want of
communication between the leading engineer and
his assistant directly produced the tragic result.
Mr. Patrick, an assistant engineer, was the officer
who about mid-day turned off the water-feed from
the ca-iags, and he knew nething about the stop-
cock on the stand-pipe. His superior, Mr. Arnott,
however, knew all about this cock, and had the
turning off of the feed been reported to him, would
at once have directed it to be examined. But
Patrick made no report, and Arnett, of course, gave
no instructions. The man who knew nothing of
the stop-cock turned off the feed ; the man who
knew all about the stop-cock knew nothing about
the feed being turned off; and so the explosion took
place. For want of a little system and order, of the
commonest rules observed in the working of a staff,
five lives are sacrificed, and this splendid vessel
threatened with destruction. The terrible lesson
must not be thrown away. If strict order and dis-
cipline is necessary in the smallest river steamer
that plies from bridge to bridge, it is, of course,
pre-eminently needful in a floating city of ma-
chinery like the Great Eastern. And a wholly
different system of management must be adopted
before this splendid vessel can secure the confidence
of the public.

HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE
WEEK.

(From the Registrar-General's Report.)
The number of deaths registered in London in
the week that ended last Saturday was 1,092. Ex-
cluding the deaths by cholera in the corresponding
Weeks of the two years 1849 and 1854, it will be
found that the number now returned differs not
very materially from that wt ich the average rate
of mortality near the middle of September in the
last ten years would have produced.
Last week there was a clear increase in the mor-
tality from small-pox, the deaths that are refer red
to this head having risen to 36. Fifteen of these
occurred in the East districts. There is an increase
also in scarlatina, the deaths from which rose from
68 to 92, whilst those-recorded as caused by diph-
tLeria were 21. Scarlatina was fatal in 5 cases in
Chelsea south sub-district, iu 4, cases in Hagger-
stone East, in 4 in Mile-end, Old Town East, in 5
in the subdistrict of Woolwich Arsenal. The un-
usual number of 6 deaths is referred to diphtheria
in Islington East. Diarrhoea exhibits a great de-
crease, the number of fatal cases having fallen from
148 to 82. Five cases of cholera or choleraic
diarrlicea are returned, 2 of which occurred to
adults. One of these is described as " Asiatic
cholera," and occurred to an aged woman at 49,
Haggerstone West. A girl, 11
years
of holera; another girl, aged one
yP ee
t ,s o() nf old,-
t pse
diedr,ne ep Pearson-street,
It has been found that the mortality in Sheffield
and Northampton was high during the strikes. Th ►
r.gisters afford the means of showing the mortality
of the families of workpeople in different trades,
and will enable the public to judge whether similar
results arc produced by the strikes in London among
persons in the building trades. Of bricklayers 2
died in thJ week, of bricklayers' wives 1, of brick-
of carpenters 3 died, of carpen-
pouters children 16 ; of painters
tol aey,ll9e:er,sdvii children
sip' (sal
neon 5
painters'
carpenters'
wives 1, of painters' children 12;
of plasterers 1 died, of plasterers' children 2.
Last week the births of 802 boys and 805 girls,
in all 1,607 children,' were registered in London.
In the ten corresponding weeks of the year 1849-58
the average number was 1,506.
At, the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
h, ight of the barometer in the week was 29.658 in.
The readin.s fell from 30.18 in. on Sunday to 2931
in. on Friday, being the highest and lowest in the
week. The air has become much colder, the mean
temperatui a havini6, fallen from 58 deg. in the pre-
vious week tJ 53.8 deg. last week, which is 3.1 deg.
below the average of the same week in 43 years (as
determined by Mr. Glaisher). The mean tempera-
ture was below the average on every day except
Monday. The mean daily range of temperature was
20.7 deg. ; the range on Monday was 3P7 deg.
The mean temperature of the water of the Thames
tdheeg .
mean than
tNrast o6f2.t4hedaefr.: WThhiecildiiffserheingcheebr between eBen6
dery-point temperature and air temperature was
6.2 deg. The mean degree of humidity of the air
was 79, complete saturation being represented by
100. The wind blew from a northerly point dur-
ing the latter half of the week. Rain fell to the
depth of 0.83 in.; on Wednesday it was 0.31. in.