Sept. 6.
No such severe judgement can be recalled nor any comment so damning as that passed by the Court of Inquiry. on the sinking of the P. & O. S. Egypt. Lack of organization, of system and of discipline, even a charge of scant attention to the passengers by those responsible for their safety, these "are accusations which we are not accustomed to hear of any ships of the British mercantile marine, least of all in connexion with a line of the standing of the Peninsular Oriental; and in hearing them the British public will feel a reflexion on their own honour as much as, we are sure, will British mercantile officers generally. It is to the credit of the Court that it did not allow itself to be influenced by the possible reactions 0° its judgement. But that we regard as a mere matter of course. It is the pride of British justice that it is no respecter of persons, and travellers of the world will embark on British ships with the greater confidence for this conspicuous proof tha. those who fail, or appear to fail, in their duty are severely dealt with. But while we uphold the eternal virtue - of this principle we cannot but} think that the Court of Inquiry has been unduly severe. We do not suggest that it should have glossed over evidence flat told the Figvpt's officers. We do tha i that it has shown little faced.
Renter's account of the inquiry was a very full one in essential details and with this judgement before us it is fair to recapitulate some of the main points in the Egypt's defence.
Adrnittedly j those points were made by her captain and. officers. But we think that the evidence of seamen on what occurred -at such a moment is more likely to be still in the end be a demand for trustworthy than that of passen-of the doc-! gers, who were admittedly panic-stricken: and officers of the P. with the terrible recollection of And should iso many lives lost charge, would tell a-garbled tale at a Court of Inquiry. They would be more likely to blame' than attempt to exculpate themselves. Sir Frank Notley, the Company's Marine Superintendent, inspected the ship before sailing. saw the crew at their boat stations and found all in order. Captain' Ramm, the Docks Superintendent, said that - the crew knew their places: his opinion was that they could not get to them owing id the ship's i Captain Collier. who commanded the Egypt, was on the bridge when the collision' occurred and stated that she was steaming three knots. "(There is no word of any attempt to controvert this statement and we emphasize it in w oot the Court's unfair allusion to the question of speed and look-out: ne P. & O. captain is ever blamed for being late because of fog and no British captain afloat is off his bridge, except he be ill, when fog is about.) Captain Collier said the accident was abnormal and he did not think the results would have been very differenc with a white crew, owing to the list on the ship. There was general panic, due to the fear of the ship turning turtle. The Chief Officer gave the crew ten minutes boat drill before leaving Tilbury. (Nothing is reported of the length of time that the Lascars had been in the ship, but if, as is at least probable, they signed on at Bombay for the homeward run, they; must already have done several j boat drills.) Boatswain Gates testified that ample men attended ite the port side boats. Those on the starboard were useless owing to the heavy Tt is to-be remembered that the Egypt was struck araidships jon. the port side. A huge rent was- made, sh once began to heel over and sank in. twenty rainutes. Her boat deck would certainly be thirty-five or forty feet above water, and her heeling potion, both actual and apparent, seeing how soon she sank, must have been extraordinarily swift and menacing. When ip goes down by the bows,-as the. Titanic did, it is an appreciable time before passengers in the middle of the ship perceive the inclination in her decks, owing to their length and the movement being lengthwise. This tends to check
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.