The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-29 00:00:00

THE LATE ACCIDENT ON THE

MOONLIGHT STEAM-BOAT.
Yesterday afternoon,pt 3 o'clock, Mr. Bedford, the coroner,
and his jury, re-assembled at the St. Martin's public-house,
Duke-street, Adeiphi, to resume the inquiry relative to the
death of James Purcell, the lad whose shocking fate has been
already noticed in this journal.
From what has transpired at the inquest it is manifest that
the poor boy's death was the consequence of the negligence on
the part of the crew of either the Moonlight or the Prince of
Wales steam-boat, and the chief point to which the conflicting
testimony already elicited has reference, is the question as to
which of the two vessels was put in motion before the rope,
connecting them had been unfastened.

As the captains and mates of these boats contradict each
other in their statements respecting the material fact, the evi-
d. ence of the passengers will be probably regarded as the most
important.

A
A lighterman, named Maclaren, stated that be was on board
the Prince of Wales at the time when the Moonlight came up
alongside of that vessel at the Hungerford•pier. The head
rope of the former was thrown over and fastened to the lar-
board sponson of the latter. After landing her passengers, &c.,
he saw the Moonlight going ahead, without having been freed
from the other boat, upon which witness called oat, " Cut the
rope," it having become too tight to be removed from the
sponson. At this moment he saw the deceased boy fall upon
the deck of the Moonlight, one of his feet, wrenched off by the
rope, having fallen into the water. He did not see any one in
charge of the rope. He could not say if it was the appointed
duty of any one to remove the eye of the head rope from the
Prince of Wales boat, but he conceived it to he the duty of
every captain to see that the rope had been taken in before giv-
ing the command to proceed.
The captain of the Prince of Wales attributed all the blame
to the Hungerford Pier Company, whose duty it was to provide
a sufficient number of hands to attend upon the boats arriving
at that pier. It was notorious, however, that there was not
half enough assistance provided for the large number of ves-
sels calling there. It was possible that the Prince of Wales
might have gone a little astern at the moment when the acci-
dent occurred from the action of the ebbing tide. He did not
consider that any blame was attributable to the crew of his
boat. He had known many similar accidents to occur in con-
sequence of the insufficiency of piermen to attend to the boats
arriving at the pier.
A discussion of nearly an hour's duration now took place as
to the admissibility of certain evidence offered by Mr. Cat-
tarns, on the part of the Iron Steamboat Company, to which
an objection had been raised in consequence of the presence of
the two witnesses (Mr. Simmonds and Mr. Flemings, passen-
gers in the Moonlight) at an earlier period of the investigation.
Mr. Coppoek, the solicitor of the lad's parents, and several
of the jurymen submitted, that as the Coroner had determined
at the commencement of the inquiry to receive the evidence of
no one who had been in the room during the examination of
other witnesses, neither Mr. Simmonds nor Mr. Fleming, both
of whom had been present, could be heard.
Mr. Simmonds observed that his evidence, if admitted,
would be found of great importance to the jury in considering
their decision.

Mr. Fleming submitted, that although he had been in the
room a few minutes during the former proceedings, he had no
recollection of what happened at the time.
One of the jurymen proposed that a show of hands should be
taken upon the subject, and in the confusion of talking that
followed,
Mr. Simmonds urged that, as his 'evidence had been taken
in writing before be had attended the inquest, there could be
no reasonable objection to its reception.
Mr. Coppock inquired what Air. Simmonds meant by his
evidence " being taken in writing ?"
This was explained by Mr. Cattarns, who stated that the
witness had called at his office, in his (Mr. Cattarns's) ab-
sence, and that his statements were taken down in writing by
his clerk. But he had not seen him personally upon the sub-
ject, and did not know him when he was sitting in the room. The CORONER, having been incessantly appealed to for his
opinion upon the point at issue, expressed his willingness to
wave any objection that might tend to deprive them of im •
portant evidence ; but he was inclined to doubt whether the
witness could be examined after what had happened.
Eventually the Coroner decided on taking an opinion upon
the question before pronouncing his determination as to the
admissibility of the evidence.
Alexander Mills, a wood-turner, deposed that he was a pas-
senger on board the Moonlight on Monday evening, the 18th
instant, and witnessed the accident. There were two
vessels at the Hungerford-pier when the Moonlight arrived.
The eye of the head-rape was attached to the Prince of
Wales, and the remainder was lying in a coil in the bow
of the Moonlight. Witness saw a youth standing close to it
when the signal to " Go ahead" was given by the captain of
the Moonlight. The boat moved on, and a man seized the
rope, which he tried to jerk off from the Prince of Wales's
sponson. He failed in doing so, and the deceased, whose foot
was somehow entangled in the rope, was dragged against the
timber-head. Witness ran to his assistance, and prevented
him from falling overboard, but the rope had wrenched off his
foot, which had dropped into the river. No one was on board
Moonlightsponson,
was proceeding
to set the head-rope at
ltihbee
rty Prince
Hoef Wales,was confidentnear
theth at tthe
when the accident happened. The whole occurrence did not
last more than two or three minutes after the Moonlight had
started.
By Mr. Coppock—He did not see the Prince of Wales go
astern.
Mr. Coppock drew attention to a discrepancy in the state-
ments of this witness and those of Henry Tucker, one of the
Moonlight crew, who had deposed• to the effect that no one
but himself was present with the rope, which, according to his
evidence, was tightened by the Prince of Wales boat going
astern.

Another passenger named Gordon, of 17, Frederick-place,
Goswell-street, stated that he saw a lad sitting on the coiled
head-rope after the Moonlight had arrived at the pier, and
witnessed the accident. [This witness confirmed many of the
statements of the preceding witness ; but declared his opinion
that the rope was drawn out by the Prince of Wales boat going
astern.] The Moonlight boat had not proceeded more than a
yard and a half when the cry of " Stop her " was given, and
the vessel was stationary. Witness picked up the foot of the
deceased, and assisted in taking him to the hospital at Charing-
cross.

It was announced that there were several other passengers
who wished to be examined, some of whom had been waiting
until now (eight o'clock), but were unable to remain any
longer.
The inquiry was further adjoluned to Monday evening, at"
six o'clock.

A Lam BAPTISX.-At the Baptist Chapel, in By-
rom-street,
bltised by
last, a female,
raogmed-ssterev:tn,f)L,.tivherrepep,olt,unoneaTiluarr7l7onee vi, u
mersion,