A Marine Court of Enquiry' was opened on Qist ult, at the office of the Asrbour Master under the provisions. of Section 13 of Ordinance 26 of 1891 to enquire into the circumstances of the disaster which betel the P. and O. steamship Bokhara on 10th October. The following officers constituted Robert Murray Rumsey, M, Stipendiary Magistrate.
Staf Commander John Horatio Wool-ward, R.N., H.M.S. Victor Emanuel.
Richard Hill, Esquire, Master British steamer Batavia.
Alfred Edward Wyburn Hodgins, Esq., Master British steamer Thales.
Hough Craig Esquire, Master British steamer Menmuir.
The letter of Mr. G. A. Prickett, Into chief officer "f the Bokhara, was rexd, applying for the Court of Enquiry into the disaster.
The warrant constituting the Court was Mr. A. B. Johnson (of Messrs, Johnson, Stokes and Master) appeared for the P. and Company.
Giles Henry Prickett, the first witness called, said—I was chief officer of th British steamship Bokhara, I havea certi ficate of competency xs master granted in London at the end of 1889. I have been in the Bokhara since the 25th June, 1892, as chief officer. The Bokhara was a three-masted steamer of 1,606 tons net register and 2.240 gross, She was built in 1873 by Cnird and Ca. of Greenock. She was 375 feet in length, 39 feet beam, 29 feet depth, and 500 horse power, with two cylinders of 504" and 86". Captain Charles D, Sams was her commander and her crew consisted of four officers, four engineers, & winchman, a boilermaker, seven quartermasters, one European bo'sun, carpenter, x Chinese gunner, forty-two sears as deck hands, twenty-five stewards and other hands all told, We left Shanghai on the 8th October at noon bound for Hongkong carrying mails and general cargo, and passengers, the number of whom I am unable to say. She had not a full cargo, but carried about 1,600 tons, She hada draught of 17 feet 10 inches of water on departure, fore and aft, On leaving Shanghai we had a fresh N.E. breeze; the weather being overcast, with wind and sea increasing towards night.
I cannot tell at what: point the
give a of tad weather. but there was age the next morning we passed " sailing a with all sail and studding sails set. There
a.m, Land was sighted that morning and was a strong following sen wt that time, 7 beatings were taken by ayeelf and the second officer. No land was to be seen the afternoon and the second officer again took sights, but Ido not think they were reliable on account of the weather being hazy. [do not remember what they were. Soundings taken about 4 o'clock with recorded 33 fathoms, She was then steaming about 13 knots and we were steoring S. 23 W. At 8 o'clock that evening (Sunday) I again took soundings and obtained 3% fathoms, which on the dead recker ing placed me about 8 miles cast of Tungying. We were steering S. 24 W. and at that time Iwas relieved by the third officer. The wind was N.E. with a force of from 6 to 7. We had the reefed foresail set and whole foretopsai! The main trysail had been blown away in the afternoon, At ten o'clock that ni; the commander sent for me on the bridge, telling me that the glass was going down j very fast and asking me about the ad ability of bringing the ship to. Seas were then breaking over her port quarter. I turned the hands up and battened. down fore and aft and took in sails. Ata quarter to 2 on Monday morning told the com: mander that everything was ready to bring the ship to. Tt took us thst time owing to some difficulty in getting, the Ins At lit the glass was 29.70 and the force of the wind was as near a gale as possible, Tt was steady at N.E. The was brought to on the port tuck and in doing so we shipped a considerable amount of water, but no material damage was done, When we have to we had no sail set at all. She was riding fairly comfortably and the sea kept on the bow. Irelieved the commander and second officer on the bridge at 4 o'clock. The wind by that time was blowing a full gale. At six o'clock in the morning, daylight appearing, I found that we were in disscioured, muddy water. T sent the fourth officer to make a cast of the lead and at the same time sent for the commander. he sounding showed 25 fathoms with mud. Soon afterwards we got into green water and another. cast of the lead found 30 fathoms, We concluded the ship was well clear of Ockseu and far enough to the eastward, and we decided that we would bring her round on the other tack. We went ahead at full speed with the helm to starboard but she would not answer her helm. She came up a few points and then fell' off the wind at. the time blowing a When we found that this fail-as it did at every attempt, we endeavoured to wear the ship. We put the engines astern to. bring her stern up to the sea as well as we could, and then with the helm shifted hard a-port and engines full speed ahead, The ship remained in the same position, This was tried several times too.
By Commander Woolward—We kept the engines at full apeed ahead for about a quarter of an hour atatime. We had all the steam up that we could get. Our jib was blown away. We had no storm fore away-sail that we could set.
By the Court—This took place about 8 or 10 o'clock on Monday morning. After we Giscontiriued our attempts to wear the ship she fell Off into the trough of the sea and we put the engines at slow astern." Subuently the engines were stopped and only put at slow astern when required, The object of going astern was to keep her on the China coast, She.got very little way on as the seas drove clean over the quarter. Between 10 and noon we lost all our starboard boats, the ser being terrific. It was not a true sea, it was.very steep and banking, not a. long regular sea ora short choppy one, All the lee bulwarks and gangways went also, The glass then. was 29.7, and ship drifting in S.W. direction as shown by the. deep sca Lead, which we paid out from the. lower bridge on the port side, The line. drew ahead, I should think she was drifting at the rate of about 4 or5 knots, In the after-on we lost two more boats, on the port lo. The boats were carried out us they always ure. At fur o'clock I relieved the fourth officer and the glass was, now 29.15, The soundings during the afternoon ranged from 25 fathoms to 33 fathoms.. At 8 o'clock in the evonivg the glass was still etendy. The commander and third officer relieved me the bridge, the comniander telling me that when he wanted me he would send for me. About a quarter to ten' we shipped three heavy sens une after another, 1 was on the main deck. The water put the fires vut_in the stoke'iole, smashing in the gine room skylight." I had these cover-dup again with tarpaulins. The chief engineer reported to the commander that the engines were practically useless—at that time had gone on-deck and: the engineer told me he was going to report to the captain that the fires were out and that the place was ao full of steam that it would take sometime to get the fires going agami soundings up to 11 o'clock registered xbout 26 fathoms.' I-remained; on deck after we shipped the three: seas until we struck, The ship remained about the same with
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.