Morning journal and courier., 1880-07-20
The Narragansett.
Continuation of the Testimony Regard l ing the Dfsaster-Captain Nye's Testf- i
 Inony Resumed.

don yesterday morning at 10 o'clock be- fore the United States inspectors.
 Captain Nye, of the steamer Stonington, continued his testimony in substance as fol lows: He stated that, in his opinion, there is little difference between the length of blast sipnifying a turn to starboard and that of general fog alarm. The pilot rules require that one short. sharp blast shall signify turn to starboard, and one long blast shall signify fog alarm. In general fog alarm it is the custom for boats approaching each other to haul to the right. He supposed the Narraeansett heard his signals, but he had no evidence of the fact. On the night of the disaster he ran from Stonington to lit tie past Cornfeld at fair-weather speed. When the boats struck his boat was moving at the rate of eight nine miles an hour. When he heard the Narragansett whistle he interpreted it to mean that she was heading to starboard. He declared that he was more than ordinarily careful that night because he knew he was in the vicinity of other boats, and the night was very foggy. His course and time were as follows: At 9:35 D. m. left Stonington then s. w. by S., minutes to Bartlett; thence W. by s. s. to Eel Grass ightship, minutes thence w. 4 $. to Humocks, r minutes; thence W. I S. to Bartlett, 20 minutes thence w. s s. to Corn field, about 50 minutes; made Bartlett's at 1O:2O D. m., and Cornfield at 11:15 p. m. The collision took place at 11:35. After the collision I went from the pilot house to the mates room, Captain Nye continued, and ordered him to call all hands. Then went back and asked the pilot what boat we had struck He said the Narragansett. We then boJ11n6 off froD fha wreck I went down into the saloon and ordered the waiter on watch to call the passengers. They were ex- cited Told them not to be alarmed. went back to the pilot house and told the pilot to blow four whistles for assistance. In few minutes the steamer New York came up and asked if we wanted assistance 1 told them to go to the other boat. I fired what rock cts we had, but no other boats came. next went on the main deck and ordered the deck watch to throw some of the freight over board to tighten the boat forward. Ten nm utes later went to the engine room and asked if the boat was making water. The engineer said, "None yet" Then sent the deck watch down under the cabin floor to see if there was water He reported that it was coming in slowly. I ordered the flood gate in the forward bulkhead, forward of the boiler, to be opened. We lowered boats in ten minutes after the collision. I don't know how many men were in each boat My first officer was forward directing movements. Then followed the statement, heretofore pub lished, of incidents up to the time of return ing to port.
 Captain Nye attributes the disaster to misinterpretation of the Narragansett's sig nals. When he heard the two signals from the Narragansett it was too late to avoid col lision. On the night of the disaster the Stonington had but one wheelsman and one pilot Last season she had two wheelsmen,
 
 captain thinks one man at the wheel is enough He has assistance in leaving and en- tering port, and two men could not ''put the wheel over," that is, completely reverse the position of the rudder, much quicker than one could Captain Nye does not know how many passengers were on board the night of the disaster, but he thinks there were about 800, Her license permits her, he believes, to carry about 6OO but if LOGO had gone on board he should have taken the boat to New York rather than run the risk of losing his situation. He had never been told that that was the alternative, but he surmised that it was such. The company had given him no instructions as to the num- Der of passengers he could carry and his information on that point was obtained from the inspectors license. He knows that 1t would have been in violation of law for him to carry more than the number expressed in the license, but he did not consider it part of his duty to do more than to take the boat safely from port to port. In his testimony Captain Nye said no complaints were made to him at the time of the collision that the ship s boats leaked after being launched An un- known sailor took charge of one of the boats after having received permission from Nye.
 Joseph Silvia, Portuguese, was next called. He was wheelsman of the Stonington when the disaster occurred, and had held that posi- ton since April 1st. He corroborated Cap 40Il, 4o4 |, Continuing, he said that after leaving port the Stonington blew one blast, the general fog alarm, at proper intervals until the time when the collision was imminent He kept no lookout, but steered by compass. The Stonington steers hard. To put the wheel from hard-a-port to hard -a-starboard takes about one minute. He can hold her at full speed with her helm hard down, and can throw her ''hard over'' at full speed with out help. Whistles were blown once a min ute between Stonington and Cornfeld. They were blown by the pilot Heard other steam CTS sound one whistle. When the Narragan- sett was sighted she was blowing one whistle and was then one and half points on the Stonington's port bow She was heard again about two points off the port bow. The Stonington ran one or two minutes on the west course. Then the pilot was told to northwest. Witness was positive he did not hear two or three whistles from the Mar ragansett. The latter was just hauling on to the northwest course when the Stonington struck her. The Stonington gave three whistles when the light of the Narragansett was seen. Then gave one to slow, one to stop and two to back. They were rung by the pilot of the Stonington within one-half minute after seeing the light She was slowed down when the Narragansett's fog whistle was first heard
 Abraham Coon, the bow watchman of the L H. years in the service of the steamboat compa- ny. On the night of the 11th he ''raised'' the light of the Stonington on his starboard bow. He reported 1t to the pilot and imme- diately after heard one long whistle from her. His position that night was on the deck just in front of the pilot-house the head light ''blurring' so that he could not keep watch from his usual position. The pilot of the Narragansett blew two whistles, and called ''helm a starboard," /" then blew two more whistles three times in succession at distin- guishable intervals. Then he blew three whistles Ninety seconds later the boats col ided. After the fog shut in the Narragan- sett blew single whistles about one-haf min ute apart, according to Coon. The fog whis- tie, he said is about one-half minutes dura- tion, and is no longer than one blown when turning to the right. He detailed incidents of the collision, nearly all of which have al ready been published When fire was first discovered the pilot seized one of the fire buckets on the hurricane deck, but they were attached to each other by rope, which had to be cut before he could use the bucket. The second mate, Pilot Thompson and Coon, and some of the crew lowered the forward port boat. They had to cut her guys to launch her. Fifty-four persons were put into her. It was in charge of the painter on the Narra- gansett. The people came up from the up per and lower decks. Some of the passen- gers jumped in. It was ten minutes after the collision before the boat was launched Coon heard no complaint about the boat leaking. When the boat was launched the water was about foot deep on the saloon deck. Coon jumped overheard with a chair, finding that passengers were all of as far as he could see, and was picked up by boat from the steamer New York, manned by colored men, Coon was in the watey thirty five minutes. He did not return from the New York to pick up any more as he was pretty nearly exhausted Coon saw the Stonington's light before he heard her whistle. He afterwards heard more whistles, but they were confused and he could not make them out. The Nara gansett could not have been stopped after sighting the Stonington. There was no differ ence in length of the whistles of the steam CTS. He saw no evidence of crowd of pas sengers that night.
 Stephen A. Mercy gave extended testimo-