Dramatic Story By The Captain Q & A

Mr Bullock.  "The particulars forwarded to me by the company were that there were 223 Lascars of which 137 were saved and 86 lost, and 112 European crew of whom 92 were saved."

The Captain.  "I like to say that none of the officers were in the boats. I do not think that there was an officer or an engineer or anyone belonging to the ship who were saved who was not taken out of the water. People might say “all the officers were saved” but I attribute that to their better stamina and being able to stand exposure to cold better than natives or lady passengers."

The Coroner.  "How long were you in the water?"

The Captain.  "About thirty to forty minutes, I was picked up by the “Lady Crundell” but it seemed like three weeks. It was very cold indeed. There was a rough sea, which made it worse for getting the boats away. Every thing was against saving life and under the circumstances we were lucky to save so many. If the engines had stopped we should have got everyone out of the ship in five minutes. On the homeward passage at Aden we practiced collision drill and the bots were away out of the ship and hoisted back after rowing around the ship in twenty minutes. You must take into consideration that the present passengers only joined the ship the afternoon previous."

The Coroner.  "Did you tell them what boats to go to?"

The Captain.  "Oh yes but there was no question about that. We had so few passengers for the boats that it did not matter which boats they went to."

The Coroner.  "They were all in the boats within one minute?"

The Captain.  "Yes – quite."

Juryman.  "If during the twenty-five minutes that elapsed before the ship sank, there was not a time when there was slack water enough to launch the boats?"

The Captain.  "There was not two seconds. In such a heavily engined ship it stood still for a very short space of time and then took up the other way. It was not like a bluff-bowed cargo steamer, where they had to work away at the engines two or three minutes. He was watching for an opportunity of lowering away the boats, but the ship never stood still to do so safely. Lowering boats with “way” on the ship produced the worst class of accident. The boats fill up and the people were drowned outright."

Juryman.  "As all the people were in the boats, was there not an opportunity of dropping them?"

The Captain.  "You must remember there is a long way to lower the boats and they have to be unhooked. With a lot of people in the boats there is more danger than in sticking to the ship. Most accidents happen that way. The only loss of life that occurred in a case three or four years ago was in lowering two boats down with “way” on the ship and the whole of the seventeen passengers were drowned. 

The captain agreed with another juryman that it would be a good thing to have an arrangement by which the engines could be stopped from the deck. No merchant vessel was so fitted, but he believed that destroyers were. The present arrangements were all right in ordinary conditions but when one has to deal with hunnishness and frightfulness, they had to go to extreme means to overcome them. The jury suggested that the Board of Trade should be asked to take notice of the suggestion.

The Coroner pointed out the great difficulty in identification and asked if every person on a vessel was supplied with an identification disc, would it be a good thing. The captain agreed that it would be and said he would recommend it to his company.

A juryman asked if any of the engineers were to be called to state why the engines were not stopped? The captain said the reason for that was the water rushed into the engine room so that the engineers could not stop there.

The Coroner.  "Have you any idea of the cause of the explosion?"

The Captain.  "It made me think it was a torpedo because the ship that came to our assistance was blown up immediately afterwards, and if it was a mine why did it not catch other ships in whose wake we were following, although ours may have been the deepest draught ship. The other ships were “neutrals.” On the other hand, I was told by experts that the damage done could not be caused by a torpedo but must have been caused by one of the largest German mines – carrying 500lbs of high explosives."

Mr Bullock.  "What part of the vessel was struck?"

The Captain.  "The well-deck must have been struck. The bulkhead of the engine room and tunnel must have been blown away. The vessel was 550ft long and was struck about 100ft. from the stern."

In reply to the juryman witness said that if they had run over a mine it was so far aft. But he was told that there was an interval before the contents of the glass tube reach the explosion. His vessel was traveling at 19½ knots, taking the tide into consideration and the ship-traveled 400ft in less than 15 seconds. The wash of the ship, it was also said, drove mines out and then back wash of the wave sucked it in again.

Commander Irving the captain of the “Maloja” was on Tuesday commanded to appear before H. M. the King.