THE CHINA MAIL.
HONGKONG, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 12, 1873,
MARINE COURT OF ENQUIRY,
83. "GLENLYON.'
A Marine Court of Enquiry was held to-day, the 12th inst, at the Marine Magie- tracy to enquire into the siroumstances atteuding the loss of life on board the Bri tish steamer Glenlyon during her voyage from Singapore to Hongkong. The Court was composed of the Hou. C. May (first Police Magistrate); H. G. Thomsett, Esq.,. B.N. (Harbour Master); Henry Lowcock, Esq., (unofficial Justice of the Peace); R. H. Cairns, Esq., (Government Marine Sur- veyor); and Seth Doane, Esq., (Master Ma- riner and Commander of the 8. S. Mikado).
J. Templeton, Master of the Glenlyon, was first examined. He joined her at Lon- don on 1st September last. Her registered tounage is 1373 tons. She left London on the evening of the 13th September, had a full general cargo for China and Japan. She had over 3000 tons general cargo on board. She arrived at Singapore on 23rd October, discharging about 300 tons there, and taking in about 300 tons to fill up space. The ship drew 21ft. 8in. aft, and 19 feet forward, when leaving Singapore. she took in some Chinese passengers, the agenta (Martin, Dyos & Co.) issued passage tickets; there were 281 issued. The passengers were to be taken to Hongkong, Witness produced the license from the Harbour Master (Capt. Ellis) at Singapore for leaving port with the passengers. Wit- ness could not account for its not being signed. It was handed to witness by the Harbour Master. Witness did not notice the absence of the signature. The certio- cate permitted witness to carry 300 Chinese : passengers, Witness did not know that inquiries had been made if there was sufficient room for the men in case of bad weather. The ship lay at Tanjong Pagar Wharf at Singapore in the New Harbour. The names of the Chinese passengers were not given in the list, simply the numbers of the tickets. The Chinese passengers came on board just as they liked on the day of departure. They brought their luggage with them and their provisions, as they had to feed themselves. The ship did not even supply fuel. The whole ship was filled with cargo except the saloon, fore castle and similar places. There was no room to put the Chinese below in case of X bad weather. The Harbour Master came
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ou board in Singapore, but there was no passenger then. The certificate was given to witness on the day previous to departure. Witness did not remember the Harbour Master having made any official inspection of the ship. The certificate stated that the Chinese passengers were to go on deck. No official came on board on Sunday to count the number of passengers; in fact witness did not know how many were sotu- ally on board; he believed there were about 281, as described in the document received from the agents. They stowed their lug- gage as well as they could on the upper dok. Witness did not know that the crew Ished together the luggage of the passengers on deck. No luggage was below, until the gale oame on. The ship left Sinapore about noon on the 26th; the weather was fine then, and the ship steamed about 10 or 10 an hour during that time. On the 30th at noon, the wind which had been increasing during the morning, began to blow hard, gradually increasing in violence. At 3 p.m. it was blowing a gale, and the Before engines were reduced to half speed.
this they were reduced to "slow." It was raining very heavily, the wind was about N., and the ship was beading N., keeping ahead of the sea. The sea was becoming high,a sharp chopping sea-at the time. There were no bulwarks to the ship. The crew were protected by an iron railing, and nettings abaft the bridge. The nettings were made of lead lines, ínch line. On Thursday afternoon, the 30th, when the weather was very bad, the barometer fall- ing all the time, witness did not give any orders as to the safety of the Chinese, as they were safe then. On the 31st witness
then gave directions to send the Chinese into all the spare places below. They were in the saloon, cabins, forecastle, engine room, galley, closets, bath rooms, in fact everywhere that could afford abelter. On the 31st about 8 a.m. witness was disabled, while attending to the steering gear, by a sea which came over the stand knocking bim down. Witness was rendered insen-. sible for a short time, and his arms were rendered powerless. Witness could only stand at the companion to look after the abip as well as he could. He gave up the con- trol of the ship to the chief officer, telling bim to look after the ship as well as he could. Up to the time of witness being disabled, witness did not hear of the loss of any men. On the morning of the 1st iust., witness saw the dead body of a China- man on deck. About 11 a. m. on the 31st a seaman named George Key was at the relieving tackles, and was washed over- board. When they left Singapore, the ship drew 8 inches of water less than when leaving London. The cargo took in at Singapore consisted principally of rattan. After giving accommodation below to the Chinese, there were still about 40 to 50 of them on deck, remaining on the house around the funnel, which was a midships. Others were lying on a broken horse box that was lasbed flat on deck to some ring- bolts. The ship was
taking in water from all points. The port life boat was washed. away; the starboard cutter and starboard life boat were smashed. There were 80 cases of acids on the upper deck amidships. The acid caught fire before witness was disabled, and witness sanction- ed the cases being thrown overboard for the sake of safety. Very likely witness might have given the order to throw the luggage of the Chinese overboard in order to clear the deck. It had broken adrift and was washing about the deck, endanger- ing people's lives. During the gale, all the crew were on deck. On the morning of the lat, witness overheard some conversa- tion amongst the crew about some of the deck passengers having been killed or having jumped overboard, ous man jump- ing in after his box was thrown overboard, as it contained $5,000. Witness was not certain of what he heard, as he was suffer- ing from bis braises. Witness saw the dead body lying in the scuttles on the port side abreast the misen mast. It was thrown overboard. There were no marks of violence about the body, and witness thought that the man died of simple ex- baustion and exposure to the weather. That was the only dead body witness saw. Witness did not know by report that any men had been washed overboard. Witness only knew of the two deaths be mentioned above, vis, the Chinaman and the seaman. The gale subsided about 8 a. m. on the 1st. The ship arrived on the Brd. From the 1st to the 3rd, no complaints were made to him of men having been washed overboard. Several of the passengers could speak Eng- lish, but they made no complaint whatever. The ship arrived during the night and was anchored off about a mile or a mile and a half eastward of Green Island. Bosts from the shore came alongside, bringing fruit &c. to the passengers on board. Witness did not know that any passengers went op shore that night. If they wanted to go, witness would not have prevented them. They weighed anchor and steamed up to the Harbour about 8 am. on the 4th, a good many passengers had already landed They could land when they liked. There was only one man of the crew drunk during He was the gale; this was on the 30th.
in the saloon, baling water. When the gale subsided witness did not make an at- tempt to count the number of the men in order to see how many were lost. He did not count them previous to the gale. He did not count them after the gale because he could not see the object gained by ocuating them, as he did not know how Witness did not many came on board, make any enquiries among the Chinese to find out how many lives had been lost among them. It did not occur to him that it was necessary. Witness had no know- ledge that the crew and men in the engine room charged the Chiness passengers money for giving them shelter, in the forecast &
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