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

THE SUN, f:ONDON, _MONDAY
_L.EVENING, SEPTEMBER 19, 1859.

THE LATE EXPLOSION ON BOARD
THE GREAT EASTERN.

WEYMOUTH, SEPT. 17.

This morning the adjourned inquest on the
bodies of John Boyd, Michael Mahon, Michael
M'llroy,,Robert Adams, and Richard Edwards, the
unfortunate stokers and firemen who lost their lives
by the explosion on board this ship, was resumed
at the Town-hall, Weymouth, before Mr. Locke,
the coroner for Dorsetshire.

As on the vprevious occasions, not the slightest
amount of interest appeared to be evinced by the
inhabitants of the town, scarcely a person being in
the hall, save tho_e immediately connected with the
inquiry.
Mr. Leverson, as before, appeared on behalf of
the company ; Mr. Lawson was instructed to repre-
sent the interests of several large shareholders ; Mr.
Newman attended for Mr. Scott Russell ; Captain
Robertson and Mr. Galloway were present to assist
the coroner on behalf of the Board of Trade.
Mr. Campbell, one of the managing directors and
chairman of the Great Ship Company, with Mr
Jackson, M.P., also a managing director, Captain
Harrison, Mr. Yates, the secretary of the old com-
pany, Mr. L. S. Magnus, and several of the chief
officers of the ship-were in attendance.
The jury, as usual, answered to their names. The
nonchalanie of these gentlemen seemed to excite
consideralile surprise among those present, accus-
tomed to observe the rigid attention bestowed by
London juries on such occasions. Two, if not three,
of them were apparently connected with the local
press, and the close note which they took ,of the
proceedings was a certain guarantee for their atten-
,tiOb. Not-so, however, with several others, who
occupied themselves throughout the greater part of
the day in reading country newspapers, and, not to
mention other instances, the inattention displayed
on various occasions was neither in keeping with
the serious nature of the case nor the most impor-
tant functions they were called upon to perform.
The opening of the inquest was fixed for nine
o'clock, but from various causes it was quite half-
past nine before business could be proceeded with.
Mr. Robert Galloway, C.E., one of the surveyors
to the Board of Trade, was the first witness ex-
amined. He said that, under the directions of the
surveyor-general, he went on board the Great
Eastern on her passage from the river to Portland.
The ship started from the Nore on the morning of
the 9th, -and all went well till, on arriving off
Hastings, an explosion took place in the water
casing of the forward paddle funnel, which dread-
fully scalded several of the firemen and slightly in-
jnred two of the passengers. Every exertion was
used by Capt. Harrison and the crew, and particu-
larly by the passengers, to get up the poor men
who were most hurt at once. After the explosion
he examined the water casing, and found the cock
at the top side of the stand-pipe was closed, and
that shut off the escape by the syphon tube. This
being closed prevented the escape of any steam
that might be generated in the casing, while the
casing itself being shut off below from the boilers,
all exit for it, except by bursting, was prevented.
When this' was done it was a mere question of time
how long the casing could hold, as the steam in-
creased in its pressure. He believed that the water
must have become quite decomposed. in the casing,
until it assumed the form of an inflammable gas.
The inner funnel then collapsed, allowing oxygen
to mix with the decomposed water gases, and the
explosion then instantly took place. Mr. Dickson
and Capt. Robertson, the surveyor-general, were
with witness when he examined the cock and found
it closed.

By Capt. Robertson—The whole accident was
attributable to the cock being closed, and no es-
cape allowed into the boilers. Had the cock been
open even, when the feed was shut off from the
casing, the accident could not possibly have occur-
red. Could not conceive the use the cock was there
at all. 'lt' had 'been fixed for the purpose of
testing the casing by hydraulic pressure. It
could have, been used for no other purpose,
and had no connexion whatever with the syphon,
except to shut it off. Its only use in the tube
was to produce danger. It could, in fact, do nothing
but be a continual source of danger. When the feed
was shut off from the casing steam would have
issued from the top of the syphon if it had been
open, or from the bottom into the stoke-hole. It
must have done so if the cock had not been shut.
The cock was cased in with teak stanchions and
perforated zinc panels. Witness had not the least
doubt whatever in his own mind as to the cause of
the accident. Could not speak positively as to who
was in charge of the paddle engines from the time
of leaving the Nore. Mr. Dickson appeared to have
the control of them, but he could not say for cer-
tain. Witness was on board the ship to report upon
the working of the engines, but not to interfere
with them in any way, directly or indirectly. He
was to report on the engines before a Board of
Trade certificate could be granted, and without
which, the. vessel could not have carried passen-
gers. Witness had only made a partial examina-
tion of the engines when the explosion occurred.
Had all gone on well throughout the trip and the
trial trip.to Holyhead, he- Would have passed the
engines as satisfactory. Up to the time of the ex-
plosion the machinery worked well, and he saw
nothing wrong. He saw the stand-pipe from the
deck before the explosion, but he was not then
aware of the dock being in existence. Any person
aware of the construction or management of the
engines should have pointed this out to him. He
could not of himself have supposed for a moment
that a cock would have been so placed. He was not
aware the donkey-engines would not work, though
he knew they gave some trouble. There was only
one, he believed) which was so very troublesome.
He was not aware of the cause of its failure. Had
he been in' the engine-room and found the donkey-
engine not working well, and feeding the boiler
with difficulty, it would have occurred to
him that the donkey-engine only was in
fault. When the feed to the casing was
shut off he should certainly have looked to the
syphon-pipe to see if there was any escape of steam.
If there had been none, he should at once have
examined the cock, had he been aware one was

there, to See if that was turned. (Witness was here
handed a plan of the funnel-casing, donkey-engine,
feed-pipes, and syphon-tube, which he had made,
and which showed them as they were previous to
the accident, and from this witness explained to the
jury the working of the whole apparatus, and the
position of the cock in the syphon-tube, the shut-
ting off of which had caused the calamity.)
Examination resumed—There could have been
very little water in the jacket when it blew up.
The pressure of steam on the casing at the time it
exploded must at least have been between 4001 b. or
5001 b. on the square inch, Had the upper cock in
the tube been open, there couLl have been no dan-
ger. The cock was put there when the casing was
tested, and it certainly should have been removed
before the vessel left the river. He could not say
whether or not the cock was visible through the
perforated zinc casing, but, to the best of his belief,
the cock was not accessible from below. There was
nothing new in the arrangement of the funnel
casing. It was comparatively new in the port of
London, but had often been used elsewhere. The
stand-pipe was not liable to accidental interruption
from things which might be pumped in from the
sea, and if the communication ban not been shut off
from the casing to the boilers, even if the cock on the
top of the tube was shut, no explosion could have
occurred if the apparatus had been worked for 20
months.
Mr. Alexander M'Lennan, chief engineer of the
Great Eastern, then gave evidence as follows :—He
had been attached to the Great Easter for 23
months. During that time he had been furnish-
ing himself with all the information he could get
relative to the boilers and engines of the vessel. It
was his duty to report to the directors about any-
thing which he thought wrong, or of which he
disapproved. He had never been in charge of the
engine at all, and at the time of the accident the
paddle engines were in charge of Mr. Dickson, Mr.
Scott Russell's superintendent foreman. He had no
charge of the engines at any time. The orders he
received from the late Mr. Brunel were not to take
charge of them till complete. On the last day Mr•
Brunel was on board the ship—the Monday before
it left the river—Mr. Brunel repeated those orders.
He was told not then to consider himself in charge
of, or responsible for, either screw or paddle engines
until fully tried. The chairman of the company,
Mr. Campbell. also gave him similar orders. Mr.
Campbell used to say, "Let them alone," meaning
by that that witness was not to interfere with the
representatives of Mr. Scott Russell or Watt and
Co. in any way. In compliance with those instruc-
tions, before leaving Deptford he called his assist-
ant engineers together, and informed them theywere
to consider themselves under the senior engineers
of the contractors for the two engines. From that
time he, considered the paddle engines were entirely
in the hands of Mr. Scott Russell, and the screw in
those of Mr. Blake, of the firm of Watt and Co.
Never ,had any, direct, communication with Mr.
Scott Russell on the subject, nor did he assist Mr.
Dickson in the engine•room at all. If a wheel was
wanted to be turned, or a message given about the

engines, he gave that assistance, of course, but no
thing more. 'the funnel casing was filled by Mr
Scott Russell's people, though witness did not see
them filled or tested. While lying in the river he
was aware that a cock was fittedin one of the tubes,
but on one occasion he saw it, and Mr. Dickson
said while walking along with witness on the deck,
"What is that cock doing there?" to which he re-
plied, " I am sure. I don't know." The cock was
then fixed to the casing, but no pipe was attached
to it. Previous to the explosion he was not aware
of the existence of any stop-cocks in the syphon-
tub,:. As an engineer, but not as engineer in charge,
he could say how the accident was caused. On
leaving the Nore the donkey-engines, two in num-
ber, soon began to be very troublesome. That he
knew from the frequent correspondence that took
place between Mr. Dickson's or Mr. Russell's en-
gineers as to the difficulty with Which those engines
were then working. They continued so throughout
the day. There had been four at work on the pre-
vious day, but two were stopped to make some
alterations or repairs. Could not say whether they
were pumping water at the latter part of the day
into the jacket or direct into the boilers, nor how
soon the feed was turned off from the jacket, or by
whose orders it was done: No accident could pos-
sibly have happened if the feed lad been continued
through the casing, or if, when the feed was discon-
firmed, the cock at the top of the tube had not been
turned off. The cock was no use where it was at
all. He was in no way whatever responsible for
what took place. His orders were not to interfere
with the management of the engines in any way.
Ho was simply a looker on with a view to the future
efficiency of the engines. -No report was ever made
to him, and Mr. Dickson alone was in charge of the
paddle engines. • He knew positively the donkey
engines were not working well, as he went and
looked at them for himself. On the part of the com-
pany he should not-accept the donkey engines either
as finished or as satisfactory engines.
Examined by Mr. Newman—Witness signed the
ship's article on the sth of September. Mr. Arnott
was first engineer of the paddles, Mr. Marshall the
next, Mr. Patrick the third, and Mr. Gerard fourth.
Mr. Crone was the chief engineer of the screw en-
gines. Witness visited the engine room from time to
time to test the saturation of the boiler, but he
set no cocks. He was in the boiler room a few
minutes before the accident and ascertained for him-
self the density of the water. He made two
" watches" for the men in the engine room instead of
three, in order that the things might be more
carefully looked after. Until the vessel arrived at
Long Reach there were no " watches" set at all. He
did not arrange the watches on his own autho-
rity. He arranged them in conjunction with those
in charge of the engines, who chose such assistants
as they wanted. He wa-s only present at three
trials of the engines before having the river. As
he was not in charge of the engines it was quite
immaterial whether he was at them or not. He
was present at the last trial with the late Mr.
Brunel. He was not aware that the cock on the
pipe was accessible from the deck before the explo-
sion. There was a brass knob, like the handle of a
door, in the easing of the second funnel, but it was
quite impossible to say whether a similar one ex-
isted in the casing which had exploded. On the
occasion already referred to, when witness, with
Mr. Dickson, saw the cock on the pipe, he never
asked Mr. Dickson to let it remain in. On one
occasion he told Mr. Russell, when, early in August,
he offered witness to take charge of the auxiliary
engines, that he could not do so, and he was, in
fact, prohibited from doing it till they had all been
passed as satisfactory to the company and directors.
By Captain Robertson—He had never for any
time or on any occasion taken charge of the engines
or interfered with them in any way whatever.
By Mr. Lawson—None of the trials of the engines
were ever conducted by witness, or, ad far as he
was aware, by Mr. Brunel. Tho four enginers
in charge of the paddles, Arnott, Marshall, Patrick,
and Gerard, were all appointed by Mr. Russell, or
Mr. Russell's foreman. They were usually the
engineers who conducted Mr. Scott Russell's trial
trips, and they made their report to Mr. Dickson.
Mr. Arnett was then in the room. That gentle--
man had had no leave from witness or from Captain
Harrison to come on shore. He supposed he must
have received his leave from Mr. Dickson, for none
other was given.
By Mr. Leverson—His orders were to repot
engineering defects to Mr. Brunel, but he cer-
tainly had not sufficient power to enable him to
protect the interests of the company. He made
an official application in writing for such increased
powers on March the 28th, but did not obtain it.
Mr. Russell gave his apparent superintendence, as
far as being now and then in the engine room and
on the bridge. Mr. Dickson did not sign the ship's
articles, as he was not to form part o the ship's
company. Even if he went to America he need
not have signed the articles. The four engineers he
had mentioned who had signed the articles were, of
course, servants of the company now. Witness's
responsibility only commenced when the engines
were accepted by the company as quite satisfac-
tory. He heard Mr. Patrick say to Mr. Dickson
that the donkey engines were so troublesome that
he had shut the water off from the funnel casing
and turned it into the boilers direct, in the old way.
Mr. Patrick said after the accident had taken place
he did not think that was in itself a dangerous
thing to do. The cock in the syphon tube ought
never to have been put there at all. The donkey
engines, he considered, were decidedly most satis-
factory. The engine " watches" were only made
for the first time at Long Reach. The instructions
not to interfere with Mr. Dickson in:the manage-
ment of the paddle-engines were again at that time
inforced on the juniors. They were ordered to make
their reports to the engineers in charge, Mr. Dick-
son for the paddles, and Mr. Blake for the screw.
By Capt. Robertson—The after pair of boilers
which were fitted with a jacket casing were filled
also direct from the donkey engines, instead of
from the casing. That continued throughout the
rest of the night after the blow up he thought.
Could not say if there was a cock on the tube of
that casing also, nor whetherit was turned or open.
All the reports went to Mr. Dickson or Mr. Blake,
and not to witness directly or indirectly. The don-
key engines to the screw wore troublesome, as well
as those to the paddle. Before the vessel started
witness made a verbal report to Mr. Brand that
the ship was not fit to go to sea as far as detail was
concerned. A large number of things were un-
finished, and had witness been asked to express an
opinon he would certainly have advised the direc-
tors not to send her to sea. That remark did not
refer to the safetY of the ship or the general com-
pletion of her engines, but to matters of detail left
quite unfinished.
Mr. John Dickson, Mr. Scott Russell's foreman,
or managing engineer, said the paddle engines en-
tirely, including the water casing, were constructed
under his superintendence. The water casing was
all constructed by witness under the directions of
the old company. Mr. Russell then had nothing
to do with the yard at all. At first the funnels
were designed on the common plan, but those were
afterwards cut up and others with water jackets
substituted, for which Mr. Scott Russell was in no
way responsible. It was by witness's directions
that the cock in the tube was fixed. He supposed
it was by his directions that the cock was left on
the tube. He considered the cock was necessary,
as if the pipe had been broken and there had been
no means of shutting off the water it would have
spoilt the saloon beneath. The pipe was liable to
be injured by ropes from above. Witness did not
see this cock turned open, but he knew it was so,
as steam used to come out as well as water come
down to the stoke-hole floor. That was the case
during all the trials of the engines at Deptford. He
lengthened the syphon after the last trial a few
more feet in compliance with Mr. Brunel's request,
in order to get more pressure down. Did not ob-
serve from that time till the time of the explosion
that any steam was ever escaping from the pipe.
He did not himself look to observe if there was an
escape, as he was very busy. There was a door in
the casing above the upper deck, which gave access
to the cock, which could be turned by any one with
a " spanner." Witness was never put in charge of
the paddle engines at all, he only assisted in work-
ing them, and never gave an order to any one direct
or indirect. He considered the engines the property
of the company, and that Mr. M'Lennan was in
charge. Mr. M‘Lennan certainly acted as chief en-
gineer, and conducted himself in the engine-room as
such. Witness merely backed and stopped the en-
ginesh e
thesignals
primingf o m df e
theck.
The cause in
of complianceth
the accident
boilers from dirty water, which affected the donkey
engines, and made them very troublesome. Could not
wth
Suest
say at what time the feed from the funnel was abut off.
He was absent for about two hours at 11 o'clock,
and that might have been the time when the feed
from the casing was shut off. Had the cock not
been left on the tube there would:have been no ac-
cident—there could have been none. If the feed to
the boiler had not been cut off, there could have
been no danger. Witness certainly considered that
the engines had been given over to the company
after the last trial had been made in the presence of
Mr. Brunel at Deptford. He was positive that he

was not in charge of the paddle engines. Could not
say who was, or if -any one wa, in ehar..e at All.
After the explosion witness, with Mr. Galloway,
examined the cock on the tube of the second funnel
and found it open. From that casing he thought
the boiler was afterwards fad all thougl the night..
The water was then taken through that casing. It
Was past 12 at night, however, before the boilers
ceased to prime.
By Mr. Leverson—Was not aware that any n -
tice was given to the company as to the trial of the
engines. For the last trial Mr. Brunel ;are wit-
ness notice. The other trials were made by witness

in Mr. Russell's behalf. There had infact been
three trials for Mr. Russell and one for the com-
pany. The work that was going on about the en-
gines during the trial trip witness considered as
extra—at least, _most of it. Two of the donkey
engines were certainly out of order. The priming
of the boilers caused the defects among the others,
Never heard that one of the engineers was keeping
together the parts of one of the donkey engines to
enable it to work. The bolts of one of the axle
bearings might have been loose, but witness was
not personally aware of it.- In general it was not
the chief engineer who looked after the injection
and throttle valve. Any engineer might do so,
who was in charge, but it was not the especial
duty of the chief engineer. Witness did not give
any directions as to the engines. lie heard. Mr.
M'Lennan give orders to get up steam, he set the

watches, regulated the water, and tried the'brine.
Witness bad no instructions to go on board from
Mr. Scott Russell. He was unwell and reluctant to

go, but all the ships, in tha. .:of finishing de-
tails, was Undera--14,'- uncommon to