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White Star Line
Suevic 1901-1928
News from 1907: Suevic's Grounding
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[QUOTE="Mark Baber, post: 275610, member: 79063"] [i]The Times, 20 April 1907[/i] [b]THE STRANDING OF THE SUEVIC[/b] --- At Liverpool, yesterday, a Board of Trade inquiry was opened before Mr. STEWART, the stipendiary, and assessors as to the stranding of the White Star Company's steamship Suevic on March 17 on the coast of Cornwall, while on a voyage from Melbourne to London and Liverpool, via Plymouth. The Suevic, which was the largest British vessel engaged in the Australian trade, on her homeward voyage, left Teneriffe for Plymouth on March 13 with 382 passengers on board, a stowaway, and a crew of 141 hands all told. She had a cargo of about 1,000 tons, composed largely of meat, rabbits, and butter. On Sunday, March 17, about 10 25 p.m., during hazy weather and with a moderate wind blowing, the vessel stranded. No lives were lost. Mr. Paxton, for the Board of Trade, stated that the real point in the inquiry was as to the cause of the disaster. There was no doubt that the primary cause was under-estimating the vessel's speed, because at the time she struck the log registered 127 1/2 knots, and, if that had been correct, so far as the distance she had ran was concerned, she would have been ten miles off the Lizard. The sound signals from the Lizard were heard before the stranding. The question was-"Was the weather around the ship such as justified the master in proceeding as he had done?" Evidence was given by lifeboat men and lighthouse men on the Cornish coast as to the state of the weather at the time of the stranding of the Suevic, and the distance at which the Lizard light could be seen when fog prevailed. One witness stated that he had known occasions when the light could not be seen from the sea a quarter of a mile away. Richard Green, a pilot at Falmouth, considered the Lizard light a bad one in any weather. It was too fierce, and it was difficult to judge the distance from it. Alfred Vingoe, a pilot and coxswain of the Penzance lifeboat, expressed the opinion that they could pick up the loom of the present strong electric light at a greater distance than the old light. Captain Thomas Johnson Jones, master of the Suevic, described the course which he set, and said that just before the stranding there was nothing in the weather to indicate that there was any danger. The first suggestion he got that they were near land was from the second officer on the bridge. This was a minute and a half before the vessel struck. The light appeared high up, and that showed they were close in. He gave the order "Hard a-port," but too late. He thought a strong current was the cause of his overrunning his distance. There must have been a current he did not allow for. The weather was not thick at the time the Suevic struck. The witness had received a letter from the captain of the Golconda to the effect that he was carried out of his course 11 miles by the current on the date the Suevic was wrecked. The inquiry was adjourned until Monday. -30- [/QUOTE]
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White Star Line
Suevic 1901-1928
News from 1907: Suevic's Grounding
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