A Naval Court of Inquiry-into the cumstances attending the loss of the British steamer Holme Eden was opened on Monday afternoon st the British Consulate before Mr. G. M. A. Playfair, Vice-Consul (President), Lieut. Tawney(H.M.S. Linnet) and Capt. Weighell (master of the P..
steamer Bokhara).. Paymaster Pritchard (B.MLS. Linnet) acted as Clerk ut the Court.
John Prentice, examined by Mr. Playfair, said—I was master of the Holme ten, is hold a master's certificate... The ip Jeff Antwerp on 22nd: Feb., Isden "With general cargo for Penang, Singapore, 1,800 'After leaving we had: thiok; blay weather the™eoast, particularly at. ni the outside course: on: account, of the-thigh weather, not, caring -to- go tpo. close'tasthe land. On.the evening! of the"22nd. April we wore' making for tha Two. Brothees, The chief officer's watch hegan.at widpight, but Iwas on the bridge and. in ener room up to two o'clock, We: were.then going towards Bonham ona conine which ought to have taken, us 6 or 6 miles to,.the south of the Leucomna islands, deck and stupped the engines, whic vw. were ing full speed. astern.. L, vas. afraid Soundings were' taken and 1. fuad the might ip. off into fice Water, ship was. filing fast. The water ~was, caming in at both ends and. in the-contre, The were got out. When I abandoned the ship,'the stern was 12 feet under water and the ship.was covered. for, hoyt two thirds of her length, The. stem.was high and.dry. Tt was within a few minutes aflow water when she struck. I considpred it hopeless to attémpt.to.save the abip or cargo, and that the only thing to, be done was to take to the boats. I had them pravisioned, and we lay near the ship for about an hour, 90 as to see her position after daylight. We had to push off a little way from tie abip on account of the wells, The officers und crew were perfectly orderly. On leaving the-ship we steered towards Bonham slond, the weather remain very thick until 11am... On: ne Bonhum we experienced a very trong wind as from the north, and not Being able to get to the island we beat about, all ight trying to get to: windward. i night the two, boatd. wore.véparated.. In the morning, being unable to mike Bonham, I bore' for Gutzlitf, "baying a wind, We sighted Gutzlaff next night the wit id then deepped, i to work the boat agai jocked about all time night.
Picked op sank inioming (the 20¢h) hitiese gunboat: Chaot: Wu. ubi miles from Gutzlaff:, I told the Of that vessel about the other tribute the loss toa very strong northerly current which was runeing in vppuaition, the tide and for whi 08 pared. On the night of the lose was very light, almost calm,, bai was a very/heary swell, By Lieut. Tawney—I tas position by the Finger Reck of. the chows, at 9.a.m, on the 22nd, straight fur the Brothers, sight: them. Leannot say what. followed, as the charts and books, We were abeam of the Brothers: at,1,15 p.m, abut four miles off. They, could seen clearly... From the Brothers ¥e, were steaming at 8§ miles an hour, and ateesed the same course for-an hour and g qupster. At a quarter to one I put the.engineg dead slow and altered ths eoutse-to 8 Slaes6 a8 to. make two miles to the south.-, When altered the course I thought about 5 miles from Lo course three-q hour, making about 2 knots, ped and took a "pending to "hold passing to the weatwar
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.