Wreck Report for 'Alfred', 1881

(No. 999.)

"ALFRED."

The Merchant Shipping Acts, 1854 to 1876.

IN the matter of a formal Investigation held at the Grand Jury Room, in the Town Hall, in Swansea, on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th days of May 1881, before JOHN COKE FOWLER, Esquire, Stipendiary Magistrate for the Borough of Swansea, assisted by Captain HIGHT and Captain WARD, into the circumstances attending the abandonment of the British sailing ship "ALFRED," of Swansea, about 70 miles N.N.W. of Bermuda, on or about the 5th day of March 1881.

Report of Court.

The Court, having carefully inquired into the circumstances attending the above-mentioned shipping casualty, finds, for the reasons stated in the annex hereto, that the said ship was prematurely abandoned, and that the master, but not the mate, was in default, and the Court suspended the certificate of the said master, Samuel Winter, for three calendar months.

Dated this 4th day of May 1881.

 

(Signed)

JNO. COKE FOWLER, Judge.

We concur in the above report.

 

(Signed)

EDWARD HIGHT,

Assessors.

 

 

GEO. WM. WARD,

 

Annex to the Report.

The "Alfred" is a wooden vessel, of 253 tons register, and was built at Summerside, Prince Edward Island, in the year 1871, and classed A1 for 7 years, and continued in 1879 for 5 years. She is owned by Mr. Joseph Alfred Nicholson (who is her managing owner) and others, of Swansea. She left Coosaw, in the Bull river, South Carolina, on the 25th of February last with a crew of 10 hands all told, including the master, Samuel Winter, who holds a certificate of competency, No. 93,992, and was well found and in good condition for the voyage. She had on board two boats, a long boat and a jolly boat, and was fitted with two iron pumps, which were worked with a hand brake. She had a platform 3 feet high in the hold, upon which the cargo was stowed in bulk, consisting of 411 tons of phosphate rock, about 100 tons of which was in the fore hatchway, 100 tons in the after hatchway, and the remainder in the main hatchway, heaped up in midships, and sloping towards the ends and wings. The weather was fine on leaving Coosaw, and continued so till the evening of the 26th, when a gale sprung up from the S.S.E. to S.W. with a high cross sea. At noon of that day they had a good observation, by which Cape Hatteras bore W.N.W. from 70 to 90 miles off. This was the last and only perfect observation they could get. Sail was reduced, and the ship was run in her course till midnight, when they were obliged to heave to under the lower maintopsail in consequence of the sea running so high and breaking over them, keeping the decks constantly flooded. From this time she began to make water. The master, mate, and others of the crew went into the hold through the lazarette, and found the water coming through the deck seams, about the mast and pump well, and also through some of the plank seams in the side of the vessel. The upper part of the cargo was saturated. Efforts were made by the master by nailing canvas from the underside of the decks to the wings to lead the water to the pump well. On the 28th the crew commenced to lighten the ship by throwing the cargo overboard from the fore and aft holds, by means of buckets, which were brought up from the hold through the lazarette. On the 2nd of March the crew came aft, and asked the master to leave the ship; he replied that the weather was such that a boat could not live, and sent them back to work, saying he would try and get to Bermuda. On the 4th a vessel was in sight, and the men again came aft and expressed a wish to leave the ship, adding that they would take the first opportunity of a passing ship to leave her. At 7 a.m. the next morning, March 5th, another veseel hove in sight, and signal was made to her. The men again came aft and told the master they were so done up and exhausted they could stand it no longer, and were determined to leave whether he would or not. The master offered no resistance to this application. He consulted with the mate, and the long boat was launched, and they proceeded to the vessel, which by this time had come down, and was found to be the German barque "Leopoldine Fraude." This vessel was afterwards in distress, and trying to make for Bermuda, but a gale was blowing from the S.W. and they could not fetch it. They remained on board this vessel for about 20 days, when she was abandoned, and both crews were taken on board the ship "Northern Chief," and after remaining on board 5 days were transferred to the steamship "Edouardo," bound to Liverpool, where they were safely landed on the 10th of March. No lives were lost.

On the conclusion of the evidence, Mr. Strick for the Board of Trade, asked the following questions:—

1. Whether, when the vessel left Coosaw, she was in good and seaworthy condition, both as regards her hull and equipments?

2. Whether, having regard more especially to the time of the year and the nature of the cargo, she was overladen, and whether her cargo was properly stowed?

3. Whether she had sufficient freeboard?

4. What was the cause of the vessel thereafter making so much water?

5. Whether every possible effort was made to repair the decks, and to keep the water under-whether the vessel was navigated with proper and seamanlike care?

6. Whether she was prematurely abandoned? And finally,—

Whether the master and mate are, or either of them is, in default?

And stated that the Board of Trade are of opinion that the certificate of the master should be dealt with.

In answer to the questions the Court were of opinion,-

1. That when the vessel left Coosaw she was in good and seaworthy, condition as regards her hull and equipments.

2. That, having regard to the season and nature of the cargo, too much was taken on board, but that it was properly stowed.

3. That under all the circumstances the freeboard was not quite sufficient.

4. That the cause of making so much water was continued heavy weather and the nature of the cargo, causing the ship to labour heavily and strain.

5. That no material damage appears to have been done to the decks; and that if there was any, nothing more could have been done under existing circumstances. That there is no sufficient evidence to enable the Court to say that she was not navigated with proper and seamanlike care.

6. That the brig was prematurely abandoned, and that the master, but not the mate, was in default, and suspended the certificate of the said master, Samuel Winter, for three calendar months, but recommended that a mate's certificate be granted to the said master.

Such being the facts of the case and the findings of the Court, it is desirable to add a few words explanatory of the conclusion at which we arrived. The main and real question in this case is, whether the brig was abandoned justifiably or otherwise P There is no doubt that she had been exposed to bad weather of several days' duration. She had strained and let in a considerable amount of water, and the cargo of phosphate was to some extent wetted. It is probable that, notwithstanding the reduction of cargo, the ship was somewhat more deeply immersed than when the gale commenced, owing to the saturation of part of the phosphate, but this is not certain. As it is estimated that 70 tons of it had been thrown into the sea, it is not likely that her buoyancy was materially lessened. The weather continued boisterous up to the time of the abandonment. We are told that the position was uncertain, and could not be accurately ascertained.

Such were the adverse circumstances of the case prior to the abandonment.

On the other hand, there was no great or formidable injury to the hull or rigging. The sails were not blown away. The masts were in place. The provisions were safe. The health of the crew was not at all impaired, and no one had been injured. The vessel was upright, and the only reliable evidence as to making water leads us to believe that there was not more than 1 1/2 feet of water in the hold. (This however was not the exact measure of the leakage, because the wetted cargo was constantly receiving and absorbing some of it.) Bermuda was in fact within a short sail, though the position of the island was not then known. The wind was veering about from W.S.W to W.N.W.

Under these unfavourable and also favourable circumstances, the crew pressed the master to leave the brig; to this pressure he finally yielded, and it is quite clear that if he had followed the suggestion of his own judgment and sense of duty he would not have done so. He seems to have forgotten that he was the commander of that. ship, hired and placed in command because he was an educated seaman and bound to exercise his own judgment in every emergency; for it is admitted by himself that had it not been for the pressure of the crew he would have held on. He lays stress upon the intimation of the crew that they were determined to leave the ship. But if he thought the ship might be brought into a port, he ought to have used his authority and his power to compel them to their duty, and this he did not attempt to do. "It is the bounden duty," says the Wreck Commissioners in the case of the "James Myrick," "of a master to encourage the crew to stick to their ship as long as possible, and to discourage in " every possible way all suggestions of abandoning " her, until it becomes absolutely necessary (that is, I " apprehend, in the master's own opinion) to do so."

In this case we find that the mate was ready to support the captain, but the latter had not the independence and firmness which were necessary for the occasion. Referring to many cases of abandonment, I find none in which the emergency was not much more urgent than in this case. No doubt there was danger, but it was not immediate or urgent. There was fatigue, and discomfort, and discontent to put up with, but there was no immediate danger to life or ship. It is for yielding to this undue pressure, when there was no extreme emergency, that we blame the master.

That there are mitigating circumstances which constitute some excuse is also evident. We make full allowance for these circumstances, and have reduced the period of suspension (which in the absence of some excuse would have been much longer) to 3 months.

The fact of the loss of the log must not be passed over; it was left in the German ship. We have no evidence from which it can be inferred with certainty that it was purposely left there, but, to say the least of it, there was gross negligence in the failure to preserve it. It had been fully written up by the mate, and would have been a most valuable element in the investigation of this case. The evidence on which we have chiefly relied is that of the mate, which was given in a satisfactory and truthful manner. An air of exaggeration tainted much of the other evidence brought forward. The final decision of a master as to the abandonment of his ship may often be one of great difficulty. There ought to be an honest desire to preserve the property committed to his keeping, and a determination to keep a firm control over his crew. He must consider as a skilled seaman whether there is a fair and reasonable chance of saving his ship. So long as that remains it is impossible to justify abandonment. But when all reasonable probabilities are on the side of total loss, then the preservation of life must prevail over other considerations. In this case the Court does not believe that the probabilities are of this last nature, and the Court decides in the belief that the master abandoned the brig under undue pressure when there was still a reasonable hope of making Bermuda.

Dated this 4th day of May 1881.

 

(Signed)

JOHN COKE FOWLER, Judge.

We concur in the ahove report.

 

(Signed)

EDWARD HIGHT,

Assessors.

 

 

GEO. WM. WARD,

 

L 367. 769. 150.—5/81. Wt. 203. E. & S.