Recent Losses of Iron Steamships - The Case of the " Constance " -  continued :

The iron bulkheads were as follows, viz., one collision bulk head, one at each end of the engine-room, and one at the after stuffing-box.
Water-ballast tanks. The forward tank was at its fore end 18 inches and at the after end 15 inches above the floor plates, and would contain 110 tons of water. The after tank was at its fore end 2 feet and at the after end 3 feet 14 inch above the floor plates, and would contain 75 tons of water, thus making the two tanks contain 185 tons of water. At the time of sailing these tanks were empty.
These tanks had gutter ways in the wings, with sluice valves opening into the engine-room. There was neither a steam or deck pump connected with the fore hold. In the after hold there were two deck pumps, but there was no steam pump.
She had at the time of sailing a crew of 19 hands, including Mr. Henry Waller, who holds a certificate of competency, No. 84,619.
This vessel had carried a cargo of beans on her last voyage, and her shifting boards had not been removed. They extended from the deck in each hold, and went down 8 feet.
There were no shifting boards in the hatchways. The hatchways were as follows:- Fore, 174 feet long; main, 23 feet long; after, 19 feet long.
There is considerable discrepancy in the evidence as to her draught of water and freeboard.
The builder, however, who before the Court, put in her displacement scale, and stated that he constructed her to carry 1,450 tons dead-weight, exclusive of engines and boilers.
This he stated would give a freeboard of 1 foot 7 inches to the upper side of the iron deck, and that it would require 13 tons to put her down 1 inch.
The cargo taken in at Penarth Docks was 1,167 tons of coal.
She also received 199 tons of bunker coal, and also had remaining in her bunkers from the last voyage 10 tons of coal, making a total of 1,376 tons of coal. This is 74 tons less than she was constructed to carry.
Allowing 13 tons displacement rise per inch, she would be 6 inches lighter in salt water, or, in other words, her freeboard would increase from 1 foot 6 inches to 2 feet 1 inch.
The engines were of the compound direct-acting surface-condensing type, of 99 horse-power nominal, and were fitted with the usual bilge donkey and circulating pumps, and had the power of working by jet condensation by turning on the bilge injection.
These were supplied with steam by one boiler capable of sustaining a working pressure of 75 lbs. to the square inch. Both engines and boilers were made by Messrs. Blair and Co., of Stockton-on-Tees, and they appear by the evidence to have been well fitted and designed, and in every way suitable for a vessel of the tonnage of the “ Constance ."
On leaving Penarth they appear to have worked well up to the time of the first stoppage, and for the first portion of this period they were driven at full speed, and the latter part of the time eased down to half speed, and whilst working at this latter they appear to have suddenly stopped, the cause of which no witness that was produced could depose to.
The engineers appear to have taken the usual steps to ascertain the cause, and to remedy it by removing the cylinder and valve case covers. After a lapse of about three hours they were again set in motion in forward gear, and continued to work until the fires were so low that sufficient pressure of steam did not exist for driving them, shortly after which the ship foundered.