Wreck Report for 'Fervent', 1883

(No. 1815.)

"FERVENT" (S.S.)

The Merchant Shipping Acts, 1854 to 1876

IN the matter of the formal Investigation held at Newcastle, on the 30th day of May 1883, before H. C. ROTHERY, Esquire, Wreck Commissioner, assisted by Captain FORSTER and Captain KIDDLE, R.N., as Assessors, into the circumstances attending the supposed loss of the steamship "FERVENT," of Sunderland, together with her crew of 17 hands, whilst on a voyage from the Tyne to London in March last.

Report of Court.

The Court, having carefully inquired into the circumstances of the above-mentioned shipping casualty, finds, for the reasons annexed, that when the said vessel left on her last voyage she was in a good and seaworthy condition, so far as regards her hull, equipments, and machinery; and that although fully laden she was not overladen; and that there is nothing to show how she was lost, but that she probably foundered with all hands in the gale which occurred on the 6th of March last.

The Court is not asked to make any order as to costs.

Dated this 30th day of May 1883.

 

(Signed)

H. C. ROTHERY,

Wreck Commissioner.

We concur in the above report.

 

(Signed)

GEORGE H. FORSTER,

JAMES KIDDLE,

Captain R.N.,

Assessors.

Annex to the Report.

The "Fervent" was an iron screw steamship, belonging to the Port of Sunderland, of 901 tons gross and 581 tons nett, and was fitted with engines of 98 horse power. She was built at Pallion, near Sunderland, in the year 1876, and at the time of her loss was the property of Mr. James Westoll, of John Street, Sunderland, and others, Mr. Westoll being the managing owner. She left the Tyne Docks at about midnight of the 5th of March last for London, with a crew of 17 hands, and a cargo of 1,001 tons of coals, besides the coal in her bunkers. The pilot left her off the bar, and from that time she has not been either seen or heard of. Accordingly the Board of Trade have directed this inquiry to be held with a view, if possible, of seeing whether there is anything to account for her loss.

The first question then which we are asked is, " Whether, when the British steamship 'Fervent' left " the Tyne on her last voyage, she was, as regards her " hull, equipments, and machinery, in good and sea- " worthy condition?" On this point we have had a good deal of evidence to shew that she was a very well and strongly built ship for her class, which was 90 A 1 at Lloyd's. In the month of January last she was put on the Wallsend Slipway and her butts cemented. It was said by Mr. Heavenson that it was a pity that when they found that the butts were defective, the repairs which were done to her were not of a more efficient character; that something more than merely cementing the butts was not done to her. We are told, however, that the butts were not even weeping, that they were merely shewing, and under these circumstances the proper thing to do to them was to cement them with red lead and iron rust, which when it dries becomes as hard as iron itself, and that seems to have been done in this case. That the repairs, too, were properly executed, may fairly be assumed from the fact that after they were done she was surveyed by Lloyd's, and was continued in her original class. The vessel, it seems, was a well decked ship with a long raised quarter deck connected with a short bridge house, the whole being protected in front by the watertight iron bulkhead, which formed the forepart of the engine room compartment, and which was carried up to the top of the quarter deck. Forward of this were the galley and some storerooms, which were also protected in front by another iron bulkhead, so that this the most vulnerable part of the vessel was protected by two iron bulkheads. Forward of the galley and storerooms was the well, extending to the topgallant forecastle, which was however sunk, offering therefore less protection from a head sea than if it had been on the main deck. The hatchways, of which she had four two on the quarter deck and two in the well were particularly strong, having three for-and-afters 8 inches by 7 with crosspieces, and 4 tiers of hatch coverings three inches thick, the coamings also which were of iron were 2 feet 9 inches high on the quarter deck, and 3 feet 3 inches in the well. The vessel had also permanent wingboards in the holds to facilitate 'the trimming of the cargo, and which would prevent it shifting into the wings in case the vessel at any time should take a list to either one side or the other. She had also two temporary wooden bulkheads one forward in the way of No. 1 hatch, and the other aft in the way of No. 4 hatch, which were secured above to the beams and extended downwards to about the hold beams, and were intended to keep the coals in the centre of the ship, and to prevent their going either forward or aft when the' vessel pitched, an empty space sufficient to contain from 40 to 50 tons of coal being left both in the fore as well as in the after part of the hold, so as to make the ends of the ship light. On the whole it appears to us that the vessel, so far as her hull, equipments, and machinery were concerned, was in a good and seaworthy condition.

The second question which we are asked is, "Whether " the load-line disc was so placed as to give her suffi- " cient freeboard?" The evidence is that the load-line was placed at 1 foot 3 inches from the deck, and certainly if she had been loaded down to it she would have had an utterly insufficient freeboard. Mr. Darney, the draughtsman for Messrs. Shortt & Company, the builders, told us that he should have been very sorry to have gone in her to sea if she had been loaded down to that point, and in that opinion the assessors entirely concur.

The third question which we are asked is, "Whether " she was overloaded?" It seems that she had on board 1,001 tons of coal as cargo, besides the coal in her bunkers. It is admitted that before leaving she took in 41 tons into the bunkers, but the question is, what quantity had she in them remaining over from the previous voyage. The stevedore, who stowed the coal in the bunkers, stated that there was an empty space left in them sufficient to contain about 6 to 7 tons, and as we were told that the bunkers would contain nearly 90 tons, when filled, that would seem to shew that there must have been about 40 tons in the bunkers before the 41 were put into them, and that consequently she must have had above 80 tons in her bunkers when she left. We were told, however, that there was an inclined shoot or bulkhead constructed of planks in the bunkers so as to lead the coals to the door or slide opening into the stokehole, making it more easy for them to get at the coals, and that this would leave a large empty space in the bunkers. Moreover it was very strongly argued by Mr. Roche that, seeing that the vessel was engaged running from the Tyne to London and back, that the voyage occupied each way about 30 hours, making a total of 60 hours steaming, and that the daily consumption was only from 8 to 10 tons, and for. the whole voyage therefore less than 30 tons, it would have been absurd to have taken in her bunkers as much as 80 tons or nearly three times as much as would be required for the voyage. The order, the stevedore told us, was to put in 39 tons, but they have to regulate the quantity by the waggon loads, and these gave 41 tons. The owner could not say what quantity exactly remained over from the previous voyage, but he was quite sure that it was only very little. I think therefore that we must take the quantity in the bunkers to have been between 41 and 45 tons, and therefore the total dead weight on board from 1,040 to 1,045 tons. The question then arises what would be her mean draft, and what her clear side with that weight on board. Unfortunately we have no evidence in this case as to what was her draught of water on leaving, but Mr. Darney, the draftsman to the builder, told us that according to the displacement scale that would give her a mean draft of about 15 feet. But it is well known that vessels do after a time draw more water than is shewn by the displacement scale, and for this Mr. Roche thought that an allowance of about 3 inches might fairly be made, which would make her mean draft about 15 feet 3; and this, according to Mr. Darney, would have given her a clear side of something over 2 feet. Mr. Darney also told us that she had a very large sheer, namely 5 feet 6 forward and 3 feet 6 aft, and that her camber was also very large, being as much as 12 inches; and after making all due allowance for sheer, camber, deck erections, height of coamings, and strength of hatchways, the conclusion at which he arrived was that according to Lloyd's rules 1 foot 8 inches would be a sufficient freeboard for this vessel. According to the Board of Trade Rules he calculated that the required freeboard would be about 2 feet. Seeing then that the voyage was only from the Tyne to London, and that she had somewhat more freeboard than that required by the rules either of Lloyd's or of the Board of Trade, the assessors are not prepared to say that she was overladen, she was certainly fully laden, but they cannot say that she was overladen. If the voyage had been across the Bay of Biscay it would have been different, but for a voyage from the Tyne to London we cannot say that this vessel had too heavy a cargo in her.

The fourth question which we are asked is, "What " in the opinion of the Court is the cause of her not " having been heard of since she left the Tyne on the " 5th of March last, for London?" We are told that the cargo consisted of 300 tons of coal from the East Pontop Colliery, 300 tons from the East Castle Colliery, 261 tons from the Boldon Colliery, and 132 tons from the Red Heugh Colliery. With the exception of the 132 tons from the Red Heugh Colliery, the coal, with which she was laden, was not of a character to give off any large quantity of explosive gases; indeed, we were told that the Pontop and the East Castle Collieries, from which the greater portion of the cargo came, are so free from gases that they are worked with naked lights. The only coal which would be likely to give off explosive gases was the 132 tons from the Red Heugh Colliery; but, according to Mr. Atkinson, the Assistant Government Inspector of Mines for the District, he did not think that the quantity of gas which would be given off would be sufficient to endanger the safety of the vessel. We were told also that the coals do contain a certain amount of iron pyrites, but this is picked out as far as possible when the coals pass over the screens; and the shortness of the voyage seems to preclude any danger arising from spontaneous combustion. It seems, however, that within an hour and a half after the vessel had left the Tyne a very severe gale sprang up, commencing at first from the north, and afterwards going round to N.N.E., and that it caused the loss of some 60 to 70 fishing boats belonging to the East Coast of England, besides a large number from the coast of Friesland, and of no less than 6 steamers. It was a gale of such extreme violence that one of the witnesses, who has had experience of this coast for the last 40 years, as well as the Whitby pilot, Cass, say that they had never seen a worse, and that it was bad enough for anything. I think that was the expression. It seems probable therefore that the vessel foundered in this gale, but whether by being kept running for too long a time before it, whether by some of the machinery giving way and the vessel broaching to, or whether by being swamped by the seas, and whether, if she had not been so deeply laden, she would have survived it, it is of course quite impossible to say. As regards the captain, we are told that he was a particularly careful man, and a man of considerable skill, and there is nothing to shew that her loss was in any way due to him. As to the owner, Mr. Westoll, we are told that he has 21 steam colliers running and that they are all entirely uninsured, which is a strong guarantee for their being sent to sea in a seaworthy condition, for, in the event of their being lost, the loss would fall upon him. There is nothing for which, so far as we can see, Mr. Westoll is to blame.

The Court was not asked to make any order as to costs.

 

(Signed)

H. C. ROTHERY,

Wreck Commissioner.

We concur.

 

(Signed)

GEORGE H. FORSTER,

JAMES KIDDLE,

Captain R.N.,

Assessors.

L 367. 1588. 150.—6/83. Wt. 73. E. & S.