Year: 1879

post; [ then walked upon the
top and in few minutes noticed
green light on our port bow.
Thinking it was a sailing vessel [
took bearing of the light, which
was northeast. l finally saw, with
the aid of night glasses, that the
vessel approaching had masthead
light, which burned very dimly, and
yet few minutes later | discovered
her red side light. The first light
[ saw was the green side light. l
was standing to the weather side of
the wheel, and about three minutes
after I saw the green light, then
l saw the red light, the former
being shut out entirely, and [ made
sure she was going astern; saw
red light about two minutes; said it
must be New York tug boat going
to speak to US; said this because I
thought she was going around lee
quarters; then he showed a red light
and showed his green one again in
about three minutes. [ saw the
light first; she appeared to be shie-
ing about; she was either badly
steered or altering her course when
he shaded the red light and showed
the green. | was almost certain
there would be a collision, more or
less, and before | had time
to do anything, he struck US
at the end or little
abaft the stern. When he struck
US | was on the weather
side of the wheel. 1t was a
heavy shock, and caused me to
stagger, and when was going down
off the poop, l met the Master. |
ran forward on the forecastle. 1t
was hard to see which vessel was
most damaged. 1 looked over the
bar, of course. The first thing l
saw was a steamship in actual con-
tact with US. One Of her anchors
was lying on top of our stern. The
appearance of the steamer to me,
when [ looked over, was confused
mass of casks and broken wood.
[ only heard one man cry for
help. | left the forecastle
head at once. The order was
given to lower boat, back the
yards, and have down fore and aft
sails at once. All hands were on
deck and the order was carriad out.
The master, being in charge Of the
ship, gave orders for the carpenters
to 90 below and see what damage
the ship had sustained, at the same
time despatchiug the ships boat,
which was in davits, to save the
lives from the sinking steamer, not
knowing whether our own ship
would float or not. On going be-
low we found the bows In twain,
the decks stove in, and the ship cut
down and under water three feet
on the port side. The waterstight
bulkheads prevented the ship from
laundering, The Captain consulted
with the second mate and myself
and we decided to return to the
breakwater rather than proceed to
New York in our crippled ship.
Ferguson was piled with questions
by the members of the court, but
insisted he had no time to 60 out of
the steamers way after seeing the
green light the second time, and
scarcely half a minute elapsed after
this before the collision occurred.
In all, ten minutes only passed be-
tween the time of first seeing the
green light and the collision. The
night was dark, but the atmosphere
was clear. The inquiry will be- re-
sumed to-mo1iow.


LONDON, Nov. 13.-The crew of
the British bark Royal Arch, before
reported abandoned at sea, have
been brought to Liverpool by the
steamer Minnesota, which sighted
the Royal Arch off Nova Scotia
The crew reported the vessel leaky
and that they had been at the
pumps several days, but the pumps
then choked, and one man had been
washed overheard and drowned


The steamer sent boat to take of
the crew, but the weather was sc
rough that the men were compelled
to jump into the sea and were
hauled into the boat by line.