The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-25

the accident But if we see reason to prefer
Captain Eyres testimony on those incidents
of the story where we have the means of
testing its value, it will incline us to give
him the benefit of the doubt when he and
Mr. Yates are at variance on still moro i'm
portant matters. Captain Eyre's statement |
with re gard TO the circumstances anterior to |
the collision is borne out on all material points |
by his chief officer and by the pilot, both of |
whom we're on the bridge with him, and is con- |
firmed by the others of his crew who were ex-
amined, so far as they spoke TO them. Mr..
Yates story, on the contrary, is contradicted |
on a leading point by one of the lookout |
men of the Oneida. Mr. Yates asserted
that at one time the Oneida opened out all
the three lights of the Bombay; the lookout
man, although he kept his eyes on the APP
preaching vessel from the instant he dlstin-
gulshed her, had never seen her red light
from first to last. Under these circumstances,
impartial men will probably hold that the
court had no option but to incline to the side
of the accused in weighing the balance of
evidence; and further, that they were rightly
influenced by similar consideration in their
decision on the more obscure incidents that
followed the unhappy collision. 1t is clear,
CGt673S pdTi6US, that the men on board the
ship that ran no risk of laundering were
likely to be more collected, to be in better
position to note what occurred and to remem-
Der it exactly, than those in a position of
deadly peril, with vessel settling down be-
meath their feet. But it would appear that
American opinion has crystallized, as it were,
round its original misapprehensions. Salts
fed, as it is to be presumed we all are
that Captain Eyre was gravely to blame
the Americans will listen to nothing what
ever on his behalf, and marshal all the testi-
mony that is volunteered against HIM with an
utter disregard for consistency; Those on
board the Oneida who suffered the bitterness
of death and SO narrowly escaped its horrors,
who felt the shock of the collision and wit
messed its instant consequences, assume that
the imminence of their danger ought to have
come as vividly home to men on board the
other vessel as it did to themselves. Now, as
a matter of fact it is extraordinary how
slight may be the shock communicated to a
couple of vessels impinging with great vio-
lence at certain angles. We have heard of
well-authenticated instances where the bows
of ships had been crushed and stove in for
many feet while persons aft were scarcely
conscious that any accident had happened. 1t
is Ineligible, then, that the Bombays pas
sengers should have remained in utter igno-
rance of the extent of the mischief done to
the Oneida, and it is conceivable, too, that the
captain-who, standing on the bridge, was
in a much better position to judge of it
should yet have been inclined to underrate it.
lively slight, and it might have seemed un-
likely that the ship which was going full
speed should be a greater sufferer than the
one that had stopped her engines. It is true
that the fatal result goes long way to bear
out the American masters statement that
the Oneidas starboard quarter was cut away,
although a rush of water through stove-in
plank would be quite sufficient to account for
there being neither rockets nor blue lights
forthcoming at the critical moment, without
our assuming the magazine to have been
actually carried away. Yet, accepting the
damage as all that he describes it, if we re-
member that the Oneida was a very old ship,
and that she was struck neither amidships nor
forward, but close by the stern, we can still
imagine Captain Eyre's fancying there was no
great harm done; although we can scarcely
accept his statement that at the time, he
thought it nothing more than ga Craze.
What occurred after the Oneida passed on
into the darkness is still much of a mystery
The original American story asserted that
Captain Eyre had gone straight ahead with
an utter Indifference. 1t is now proved that
he did wait for few minutes, cat most five,
and, to o certain extent, that makes the case
worse for Captain Eyre Had he gone on at
| once, without staying to make inquiries or to
offer help if necessary, it would have been
strictly consistent with the theory that, in his
| opinion the collision was only Craze. In
waiting, he showed that in his idea there was
possible danger to the other vessel, and if there
| was shade of doubt in his mind upon that
| score he was bound to remain until he could
| clear it up. OF course he would answer that
| he naturally looked out for signals of distress,
! and, seeing none, continued his course. And
! here again is another mystery which we con-
| fess ourselves quite unable to penetrate by
the aid of any lights that have reached us. In
| the first place, it is in evidence that the Bonn
bays engines were stopped at the time of
the accident, and not set a-going immedi-
ately after it. The Oneida was at speed, it
is true, but according to her officers and
crew her stem was cut clean away, and neces-
sarily she was filling fast. 1t is most i'm
probable that she should have rapidly in
creased her distance from the Bombay, and
it seems quite impossible that the two vessels
! could have been so far Rsunder for five
minutes after the collision as was represented
at the trial. Supposing the Bombay lay off
for five minutes, and then got up her steam
and went ahead; assuming, as was stated at
the inquiry, that the American began firing
her guns ten minutes after the accident, then
the Bombay could at the most have been
little more than mile from the Oneida when
the Oneida's first gun was fired. Considering
that the officers and watch on the English
steamer were by this time on the alert, and
must have been half prepared for some sig
nal of distress, how does it happen that they
heard nothing whatever of the report of the
Oneidas guns? The explanation that the
report ''was somewhat smothered be-
cause the vessel was sinking"
sounds to us utterly unsatisfactory. 1t
might perhaps account for the dullness of q