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

The judge said, after fully considering all the facts of the case, I do order that the owner or owners of the steamship Constance do pay to the Solicitor of the Board of Trade £100 on account of the expenses of this investigation on or before the 31st instant.
We have given this case in full for several reasons:
First: Because we think that the practice of carrying dead weight, like coals, above the main-deck, in any quantity, in this class of ship, should be discontinued. The space it occupies certainly ought to be included in the tonnage for dues. As far as we are able to gather the facts, it appears the Constance had upwards of 80 tons above the main-deck, and that the top of the space occupied by those coals, if not the top of the coals themselves, would be seven feet above the main-deck. Secondly: Because there are other steamers similar to the Constance; we believe, indeed, that one firm has more than twenty such ships now running, and if those other similar steamers are running with similar cargoes similarly stowed, it is time that the owners, and underwriters, masters, officers and crews, as well as the officials of the Board of Trade, should take the report made in this case into their very serious consideration.
Thirdly: Because out of a crew of nineteen hands, twelve, including the master, were drowned.
Fourthly: Because the scale by which this ship was allowed a freeboard of 2 feet 1 inch , that is to say 1½ inch of clear side to every foot depth of hold, is a scale that is not admitted to be sufficient by any recognised competent authority whatever.
Fifthly: Because much was said during the Inquiry (on behalf of the owners) as to Lloyd's having approved of the construction of the vessel, and classed her: and because it illustrates our often urged contention that “ classification ” and “ safety " are by no means convertible terms — or, in other words, that Mr. Plimsoll's once strongly-urged panacea of compulsory classification of all ships, would not, of necessity or by any means, be the same thing as compulsory safety. Sixthly: Because these cases, if continued, will inevitably lead the public to believe that legislative interference and State restriction as to a load line will, after all, be necessary.
Seventhly: Because, as the owners relied very much for their justification on the fact that the ship had been classed at Lloyd's, they had no right to ignore the other fact that, by the Tables of Lloyd's Register, her freeboard ought to have been nearly 3 feet, instead of about 2 feet. - The Nautical Magazine. v.49 (Abstracts of Sea Casualties, 1878-79). [240] [499]

Hartlepool Steamer Foundered with Loss of Life - 'A telegram from Salcombe, of yesterday’s date, says that Captain Forbes, of the Persian, of Salcombe, from Catacola for Rouen, reports that on Monday at noon, whilst running before a heavy south-west gale and tremendous sea, he sighted a steamer on the starboard bow on her beam ends. He at once altered his course towards her, and found she was the Constance, of Hartlepool, with her ensign down and the men in the rigging waving to them. At 12.30 P.M. the Persian rounded to about a hundred yards to the leeward of her, set double-reefed mainsail, and kept windward of the vessel. He could see all the crew aft on the weather quarter with lifebuoys on, and many other things in their hands. Her lee rail and hatches were under water. At 1.30 a steamer with a black funnel two red bands bore down on the Constance, and hove-to about a mile to windward of her. At 2 P.M. the Constance foundered, and at that time they saw most of the crew on the weather quarter. The steamer then bore down on the wreckage, and picked up two men. The Persian also stood among the wreckage, and sailed about the spot for one hour, but saw nobody in the water.' - Greenock Advertiser [1026] [1027] 12th February 1880.