A Naval Court of Inquiry into the circumstances attending the burning of the Shanghai was opened at H.B.M,'s Con-lute Monday, before Lieut. J. F. Stuart 8, Severn), President, Mr. G. M. H.
yytuit (Vice-Consul) and Capt, Harris, of the P. & O. steamer Pei Mr. Tsai, Mixed Court Magistrate, was also present.
David Martin stated:—I was captain of the Shanghai on 2%5th Decemb he appliances for esdogaialiiog fire were one afoam pump and two hand pumps. There was a steam connection at the engine room, a hand pump on the forecastle and a hand pump aft. There was steam connection on the saluon deck and cargo deck. The crew were exercised at fire stations once month, They were last exercised at Hankow, in December. The pumps on that covasion gave a good flow of water. There were four boats. Two of them, Board of Trade lifeboats, would hold 80 persons each. One of the other boats would hold 30 and the other 20. The lifeboats were stowed forward of the paddle-boxes and the other boats abaft. ihe tackles were always kept rove. Under favourable circumstances it would take the crew five minutes to get the poate out. I was not in the habit of working the Doats at regular intervals. They were last tried about a month before the fire.
They were taken off the chocks, but were not swung into the water, The crew knew their stations to take in the event of fire; and when the fre bell was rung the crew always went to their stations. Tuflammable cargo was not carried at all. The chief and second officer and some spare men were told off to attend to the pumps. One engineer and one fireman were told off to attend to the fire-mains, One or two sailors and the compradore's staff were stationed to run the hose along. Both the steam fire-mains were on the port side, None of the Europeans were stationed at the Laud pumps. With the exception of the men who were stationed at the pumps, it tras the duty ut the crew to go to the boats when the fire-bell rang. No European officer was responsible for the stowage of cargo. The chief officer was present when cargo was taken in, Coolies and others who were workingeargo on board were not allowed to smoke, There were notices posted, to this effect, both in Chinese and English, This order was enforced by the chief officer. The cargo was put on buard by coolies and stevedores, who live onshore. Atthe time of the fire cargo was in the lower hold and "tween decks (cargo rooms). The cargo consisted chiefly of cotton, piece-goods, sugar, oil, opium, ete,—ordinary river cargo. the last occasion of stowing cargo before the fire, at Shanghai, the chief officer was present. At Chinkiang cargo was put out but none was taken on board. The hatches were not secured. The cargo rooms had doors which were shut and locked. There was no cargo which was not locked up. The hip was drawing 10ft, forward and 11ft. aft when she left Chinkiang. The deck crew were two oticers, fourteen sailors, a carpenter and four quartermasters, There were three engineers, and fourteen engine-room hands. At the time of the fire there were on board 450 Chinese, one European, and two Japanese. passengers. There is no restriction of the number to be carried, The Chinese passengers were in the Chinese saloon, on the upper deck, from the after part of the engine-room bulk-head to the taffrail. There were some inside the after cargo room, but none below hatches. It is usual to carry them in the after cargo room when the Chinese saloon is full, and when there is space in the room. Manchester bale goods were in the cargo-room. There was no cotton in the cargo-room aft, in which the Chinese passengers were, No passengers were ever carried in the forward cargo-room. The passengers in the cargo-room were nut allowed to smoke. Two ut the compradore's staff were set to watch the passengers and prevent them' from smoking. We left Chinkiang on 25th December at4.15 a.m, The alarm of fire was first given at 7 a.m.when we were25iniles above Chinkiang. The second pilot and an apprentice pilot were the at watch on the bridge. The chief pilot was a Chinese but the second was a European. I first became aware of the fact that there was fire through one of the sailors coming forward to the hose. I told the pilot to signal to the engine room to stand by. Then I went aft to the fire. Iinet the second mate coming out of the cargo-room carrying a blazing mattress, which he threw overboard. The fire bell had previously been rung, and xs I went aft the hose was being taken along. No water was procured through the fire-main, because the Chine passengers were standing on the hose and the water could not get through, the hose going through the Chinese saloon. There is ove steam connection on the cargo deck, one in the alleyway of the Chinese saloon, and one on the upper deck. The hoses were kept on reels close to the connections. The huses were attached and led along the alleyways every morning- They were of sufficient length to reach to the ends of the ship. We could not get at the connection in the cargo room, on account, of the fire. The Chinese passengera were not in this part of the cargo room. There was no time to procure water from the upper deck connection. It takes two minutes to get water from that connection, when there is no obstruction. The hose from this connection could only come through the Chinese saloon. We did not use the hand pumps becatise, as we could get'nc water through. the steam fire-hose, which was much more powerful, we could not hope to get any from the haud puu.ps. We could have unscrewed the hose of the upper-deck connection and screwed on another, but we should still have had to take it through the Chinese saloon and we should not have been able to get water through it beau: the Chinese would have got on to it as they did with the other. There was not time'to take it "over all'? outside the ship. The upper deck connection was being used for filling the deck Kanys at the time of the fre. The hand pumps were not manned, There were two dozen fire buckets. They were not used, because there was such @ crowd of pi sengers that the buckets could not be got: The order to beach the shu given about five minutes after the alarm, and the ship was beached about ten minutes after the alarm. The stem of the ship was about 20 feet from dry land when beached. At the time of the fire the ship was heading W.S.W. The wind was strong from E. People could wade ashore from the weather side of the ship when she was beached. The crew remained obedient to orders. When the ship was beached, the order was given to lower the boats, The order was not carried out, because the two after boats were in flames and the life boats could not be approached, owing to smoke. The passengers were Very much excited after the alarm was given. The fire first broke out in the after cargo-room, where Chinese passengers wore, When I first saw the fire, single steam hose would have been sullicient to extinguish it, The officers had orders to visit the Chinese passengers every two hours during the night. The compradore did this at half past five and the second officer at six, In about fifteen minutes from the time of the outbreak the ship was in flames fore and aft. Ropes were put over the buw, on both sides, and some of the crew were.sent on shore tu receive the passengers as they came down the ropes. All the people forand on the upper deck got over the bow. The people aft could have come fors ward and been saved if they had not styyed aft to save their luggage. Many of them threw themselves into the water aft, hoping to be saved by several junks which were coming up; but they were not saved, and thole luggage was looted. There were about twenty big salt-junks and about thirty smaller craft in sight. None of them rendered any assistance. Every one could have been saved if they had helped. The men in the small craft lowered their sails, looted ud Jeff the people to drown, ore about ten minutes after the ship had been beached. At that time Tcould see no one on board. About fifty people were drowned to my knowledge in trying to get ashore. There was about 15 feet of water under the wheels, and six fathoms under the stern. The dead bodies' which cawe ashore were stripped, and the living looted, by the inhabitants. I: hink the fire was caused by passengers smoking. Ido not think the ship could have been set on fire intentionally. The fire might have been burning for about five minutes before it was discovered. I should think about six lives were lost by fire, and about 220 by drowning. I can suggest no means by which such " great loss of life could have been prevented in the case of " similar accident occurring on board a similar ship under similar circumstances, the conclusion of the witness' evidence, the inguiry was adjourned till next day at two o'clock. ca
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.