The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-04


Is Convicted Again by His Own Admissions
He Could Have Rescued 200 Men II He Had
Made an Effort.
Special Despatch to The EUeni,,g Telegraph,
WASHINGTON, June Administer Thornton
has received and forwarded to the Secretary of
State copies of communications submitted on
the 23d of April last by Captain Eyre, of the
Bombay, which ran down the United States
steamer Oneida last winter, and by the Board of
Directors of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam
ship Company of London, to the Board of
Trade, for them to forward to the Lords, ETC.,
praying that the slight punishment ordered by
the court of inquiry in the case of Captain
Eyre be removed, and the boards reply thereto.
The Board of Directors of the steamship COM
pany state that they have had the report of the
proceedings in the inquiry under their serious
consideration, and they cannot but feel that the
decision arrived at by the court on the conduct
of Captain Eyre after the collision was not
warranted by the evidence laid before it. 1t
appears to the board that Captain Eyre, both
before and after the collision, did all that pru
dent and experienced seaman could do, and
under these circumstances the board request that
the Lords of the committee review the evidence
taken at the court of inquiry, and give conside-
ration to any statement which Captain Eyre
may make, and express the hope that they will
see fit to return to him his certificate. The
board submit letter from Captain Eyre, and
in that connection state that he has been in their
employ eleven years, three years of which
as commander and has always borne the
highest character. They state that they are
quite unable to express in adequate terms their
deep sorrow that an accident in which one of
their company's steamers was concerned should
have been attended by lamentable loss of life
Sc fn1+
for all the citizens of the United States who
have unhappiy lost relatives or friends by the
laundering of the Oneida, but they cannot help
entertaining a confident hope that careful re-
vision of the circumstances of the case will re-
suit in the removal of the unfavorable impress
sion which now exists there and here as to
the conduct of Captain Eyre after the collision.
In Captain Eyres memorial to the board he
states that he Dould haze rendered assistance to
the oneida if he had thought she needed it, as he
had seUen boats, capable of carrying from one
hundred and ninety to teoO hundred men, and
even if his own vessel had been seriously in
jured he could have spared several of them.
In the reply of the Board of Trade the latter
state that they are OF the opinion, after care
fully revising the record of the court that he
was guilty of gross breach of the SD section
of the Merchant Shipping act, which clearly
states that all assistance possible In of col
lision must be rendered; and further of opinion
that the sentence OF the court in suspending his
certificate for six months only so far from being
too severe, is more lenient than the gravity Of
the offense required, as well as the enact
ment to which they referred that simply
embodies the dictates of humanity, and that in
disobeying it he has been guilty not only of an
offense created by statute but of a disregard of
the natural duties which circumstances of
danger such as that of the Oneida imposes upon
those who have been the unwilling cause of the
danger; and they are especially anxious to ex-
press emphatcally their sense of the importance
of those duties at time when the increase OF
rapid steam navigation augments the danger of
collisions, and renders the performance of those
duties more imperative.
Important TO Naval Paymasters.
Secretary Rebeson has issued an order which
will somewhat reduce the clerical force at the
several navy yards. The order is to the effect
that wherever there is an assistant paymaster
on duty as an assistant to paymaster he will
be considered in the place of clerk or writer,
and the clerical force will be reduced accord
ngly. This order will be regarded as taking
effect from and after the commencement of the
next fiscal year.
The PhIOx
left the Navy Yard here yesterday for Anna
polls.