Loss of Vessel from Cardiff with Fifteen Hands - Admiralty Inquiry at Bristol - An Admiralty inquiry was conducted at the Guildhall, Bristol, on Saturday (before the Wreck Commissioner, Mr. H. C. Rothery ; and Captain Wilson and Captain Kiddle, acting as nautical assessors), concerning the loss of the sailing ship, the Conqueror, of Liverpool, when on a voyage from Penarth Roads to Valparaiso. - Mr. Macdonald appeared for the Board of Trade, and Mr. Weightman (Field and Weightman), Liverpool, appeared for the owners of the vessel, Messrs. G. N. Gardiner.
Mr. Macdonell said that the facts of this case were of a character very familiar. The Conqueror, which was the subject of this inquiry, was a composite vessel, built at Middlesborough in 1866. She had a frame of iron, bulwarks of iron, and she seemed to have practically been in all respects an iron vessel, except that the planking was of wood sheathed with copper sheeting. Her length was 165 ft., breadth 29 ft., and depth of hold 18 ft. 1 in. The Conqueror was barque-rigged, and her tonnage 599. In 1883 the vessel was overhauled and repaired at Penarth. Her load-line in her former voyage was fixed at 3 ft. 4½ in. below the deck, but previous to the voyage on which the ship was lost it was fixed at 3 ft. 6 in. She had four iron ventilators with cowls fitting to iron combings.
The ship was loaded at Penarth Dock between May 28th of last year and the 30th of the same month with 927 tons of coal from the Ocean Collieries situated in the Rhondda and Ogmore Valleys. The Conqueror went out of Penarth Roads to wait for hands to come on board, and on the 6th of June last she took her departure with fifteen hands, all told, bound for Valparaiso.
A pilot took the vessel as far as Lundy, and then left her. On the 20th of the same month the Conqueror was spoken in lat. 28 deg 55 min. N., and long. 20 deg. 24 min. W. by the Craig Mullen, and since that time the vessel had not been heard of.
Mr. Gardiner, sen., managing owner of the ship, stated that when the vessel was originally built she was classed fourteen years at Lloyd's and twenty years in the Liverpool book, but the original classing was raised to eighteen years when certain repairs were made in 1881 or 1882. She was specially surveyed at Cardiff in the month of May last. He paid £9,600 for the vessel when new. He had had experience of ships for 50 years, and a better, finer, and stronger ship than the Conqueror was never built.
From the time was built down to 1878 she was employed in the China trade between London and Shanghai, and from the latter place to New York. The vessel was built for the China trade. Since 1878 she had been running between England and America with coals.
On the 29th of May a letter was sent to the captain of the vessel asking him to use every opportunity of giving plenty of surface ventilation by opening ventilators. - Mr. Macdonell: What was the amount the vessel insured in? Witness said he deducted 5 per cent. per annum for deterioration, except in the years when new metal was placed on the ship at a cost of £815. That year they deducted 2 per cent.
In 1877 the vessel was caught in a tidal wave at Callao, and received considerable damage, losing her fore and mizenmast, and her topside was injured. The damage was repaired at Callao at a cost of £5,000. When the vessel returned home a good deal of the work had to be done over again because proper material was not used.
When she left on her last voyage she stood valued for their business transactions at £5,220 ; the insurance was £5,000. The only information he had received of the vessel after she was left by the pilot was that she was spoken a few days afterwards by the Craig Mullen.
Mr. Thomas Evans, shipping agent for Messrs. Davies and Co., of the Ocean Collieries in the Rhondda and Ogmore Valleys, said the Conqueror was laden with coal from the collieries named. He had heard that the coal gave off gas, but of his own knowledge did not know that. It was screened coal, but there would be necessarily some small coal made in transit. It would in ordinary course have been worked in the colliery 24 hours before getting on board ship.
Jenkin Lewis, foreman to Messrs. David Davies and Co., detailed particulars of the loading, and said there was room aft for 50 tons more coal and forward for 150 tons.
Mr. Wales, the Government Inspector of Mines for South Wales, gave evidence as to the nature of the coal in question. It was semi-anthracite coal, and was not liable to spontaneous combustion. It gave off explosive gas. In the directions issued by the Board of Trade for dealing with this coal aboard ship he said, "The coal is a fiery coal, but not more so than other steam coal. It gives off gas during the working of the coal, and, I believe, in a greater or less degree, for several days after it is worked."
Mr. Rothery: We are told that the loading occupied from the 28th to the 30th, and she lay in Penarth Roads for several days before starting on her voyage. Do you not think, if the coal was giving off gas, there would have been time for it to have worked off? - Mr. Wales: Yes.
Other evidence was taken, and the court then adjourned for the Wreck Commissioner to his decisions. After a brief adjournment the Commissioner gave his judgment.
He said there could be no doubt whatever but that the Conqueror was an exceptionally good vessel, and was classed at Lloyd's for eighteen years and twenty years in the Liverpool book. The Court had no hesitation in saying that when the Conqueror left Penarth Roads she was in an exceptionally good and sea-worthy condition, and well found. As to the stowage of the vessel, there was no reason to think other than that the cargo was properly stowed, and, again, the court had no hesitation in saying that, so far it appeared from the evidence, the cargo was properly trimmed, and all the necessary measures taken to prevent the coal from shifting. The Court did not consider the vessel was overladen, for, if they took the Board of Trade or Lloyd's rules, it was quite clear from the evidence that the vessel had ample free-board.
The question of the surface ventilation came next, and they were of opinion that the hold had sufficient ventilation to carry off the gases.
As to the insurance, the Court felt that a vessel kept in such an excellent and efficient state as was the Conqueror was undoubtedly worth the sum for which she was insured, and was not over insured in £5,000; nor did they think the freight was over insured. They might safely dismiss from their minds that the loss of the vessel was due to spontaneous combustion or explosion, but it was quite possible that she might have encountered in the part of America she was bound for heavy gales, which were always more dangerous to vessels going west than to those coming east. It was very likely the vessel foundered in one of the gales which prevailed at the period of the year in question.
Concluding, the Commissioner said that this was a case in which the vessel seemed to have been sent to sea admirably equipped in every way. There was no proof of her being over insured, and every care had been taken with a view to the vessel performing the voyage in safety; and, further, it was clear from the letter of the 29th of May, which had been read, that Mr. Gardiner contemplated, on the return of the vessel from Valparaiso, that she would get twelve years more in the first class at Lloyd's.' - The Western Mail [164] [361] 24th March 1884. |
