The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-19 00:00:00

NEWSPAPER

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be tion. t , uud ouie,kir the. engine-x. 2
Whew he stated that the ship. was within an acc-fifj""
being lest twa,or,ilikke thpesinthe river he thought
peopleivould aeq.,a him of Ling_t_LL., ve=;SPI any
liana, when he,inerely stood: by to give the pilot,
thebeneAt of the instant Service of the engines
when it was tuot needed.
There ivas some,applause manifested hi court. at •
this reply, which 'the Coronter, at. once: suppress.ed.
lv;thr Aiiir=4;iol4 4-11'n he took the contract
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• ".fin as was in its place ; the other..

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-lying oil .....___.w. . .... ... ...
Mr. Mr. Lawson—There were two contracts, one
with the old- company,- -end' one-with the new.
Under the old compnnv's contract mast of the on-
glues were completed.- While he had the contract
he kept to tll6. acl ,Plan 'of-conarnon funnels. All Iris
contract with the new Company- had been long ago
completed, r. •: ' .' :
A very long examination here followed, endeavour-
ing to show-that the witness's last =tract :to finish
the vessel was not concluded when the ship left
Deptford, and that therefore Mr; Rtissell was still
. liable -torepair tlin_damage caused hr the explosion.
The course which, the examination took was, hOW-,
ever, eritirel3= irrelevant to the intniry,ointo the
cause tithe poor men's deaths, to ascertain which
alone, of course, the inquest- was Opened. It was
thus not a question Of how the men were killed;-but
who was to
,pay for the damagetothe. vessel. After
repeated remenstranoes. from the Coroner, several
of the jury interfered, and declared that the course:
oflthe examination' Was quite foreign to the i8(3103;.
they were met to try. Mr. Lawson pointed out that,
it tees necessary to prove the case by showing that
Mr. Russell, being in charge, was in fault, but
eventually he consented. to waive the questions he
was desirous of- having answered, and the .exami-
, nation was continued. Witness was asked to name
font engineers ferthe PaddleengineS,und Mr. Dick-
son did so, and these engineers proceeded at onee.
into the employment of the company. Beyondthis
there was no. formal delivery between witness and
the company of the engines at all. Such a for-
mality was not usual, and ho (Mr. Russell) knew
of none, 'and never heard of any. ,
By Mr. Newman—He recommended a' pilot to •
take the ship down theriver, hat the emnpany.Only
enjoyed - htin as an assistant to - Mr. Atkinson. -
None of the crew were employed or paid by witness.
If he had considered himself; at all responsible for
the safety of the vessel or engines:during her trip,
he would not have allowed any on board but such
as lie recommended or employed. - , , •
Py the Coroner—Not one of the persons in his
employ was in any way or manner whatever em-
plci3 ed in Connexion with the engines: .
Mr. William Ilriscoe, one of the engineers who
was injured, was here recalled, and said that .4 week .
previous to the starting of the vessel he remembered
bei g :present at. a /conversation 'between Mr.
M‘ onnan and Mr. Dickson relative to some lan-vs
an other things-connected with the engine's. - Ile-
distitietly heard Mr. Dickson say he would not take
charge of the engines unless those things. were
supplied.
It being now past 6 o'clock a long discussion en-
sued as to the propriety of adjourning, but the jury
seeined most anxious to finish the inquiry, and after
Some delay the evidence was resumed.
lltlr. James Patrick, one of the engineers of the
Great Eastern, said that, after the explosion- . 4:
went to Mr. Arnott, and asked him if there Was
aniTthing.to,stop the .communication between the
w er casing and' the Syphon, and' Mr. Arnott re-
pli d that there were some cocks. When the ex-
pl ion took place,' it- occurred to witness at once-.
ti,
wi t was thit cause of it, and that was the reason
for .his asking .the questiOU. Mr. Arnott replied
thdt the tubes were fitted With 'coeks, but they were
op4n, but he said -at once, OCCan4 see." Witness
took a spanner and went to the second funnel casing,
when he found the cock shut, and instantly opened
it. ' There wass-a ' great rush 'of :steam,- for it seemed -
th t the pressure wits very high. The feed to that
fini nel casing bad been shut off from the casing.
since one o'clock On the d-ty of the'explosion.' Both
funnel casings were- alike -in this respect; ,It was
witness who stud. :the )feed off from the funnel-
casing
to the . boilers in both sets of boilers.
HO shut theni both Off at the sane time. • His,
reason for 'Shutting oil' the feed was to keep down
till priming of ; the, : boilers. , After the explo-
si they fed the boilers from the funnel casing •
that remained.' - The cock -was of no 'use in the
syphon. It was thenegleet outs being closed that -
cat sed such an accident as the present. It never
occurred to witness fo look at the' sypheri before he
shut off the feek`lHe never dreamt of- finding -a
cock in the escape pipe ;like the syphon. Witness
considered Mr. Arnott was in charge of the en-
gines that day,
.though Mr. Dickson was often
there—among the engines, and in the boiler-rooms.
From the time witness left Deptford be never 5u5,..;,,,
Mr. Dickson give, any dirgctions at all. Mr.M‘Leri,
nan gave none either to the best of.hiS knowledge.
Witness reported what he' had done in shutting off •
the feed to the boilers to.Mr.Diekson. He toid him
so in reply to Mr. Dickson's question as to what he
(witness) was about, and how things were getting
on. It was two hours after he shut off the feed
before he told Mr. Dickson. Did not inform Mr.
M'Lennan of the circumstance at all.
By Mr. Lawson—He might have reported the
circumstance to Mr. Arnott, but not before a couple
of hours or-so after he had done it. Neither Mr.
Arnott nor Mr. Dickson gave him any instructions
when he told them•of what he had done Botha
thein were present when he mentioned the circum-
stance of shutting off the feed. Witness was in-
structed by Mr. M'Lennan to obey Mr. Arnott.
Nothing was said about obeying Mr. 'Dickson.
During the five months witness was on board he
was in the employment of Mr. Russell. It .was ,
Mr.' Russell wha. -had given him his appeintment
as engineer.
At this stage of the proceedings the inquiry'was
' adjourned till 10 o'clock this day (Monday), en the
understanding that it will then be brought to aelose.