The Loss of the Jane Vosper (8 page)

‘You are the officer responsible for the stowage of the cargo, are you not?’ Armitage asked, when all this evidence had been taken.

‘Yes, sir, it was done under my supervision and I have a note of it all.’

At this the interest of Jeffrey and several more quickened. But their curiosity was not about to be satisfied. Armitage turned to Trafford and said that with his permission he would not take this part of the witness’ evidence at the moment, but would recall him later, finishing first with what took place on the voyage.

The magistrate agreed that this would be a desirable proceeding, and said that in that case he would adjourn for lunch, ending up with the exhortation, ‘Two o’clock, please, gentlemen.’

Everyone filed out as quickly as they could, Jeffrey, Alexander and Sutton among the others.

‘Well,’ said Jeffrey as they turned towards the Holborn Restaurant, ‘what do you think of all that?’

‘I don’t like it,’ Alexander answered; ‘I don’t like it at all. A very mysterious affair.’

‘And the further the enquiry goes, the more mysterious it gets.’

‘Quite. Explosions in ship’s holds are not uncommon. But it’s extremely uncommon not to be able to explain them.’

‘If the captain’s telling the truth, and it certainly seemed to me that he was, it was something in the cargo.’

‘It was something in No. 2 hold,’ Alexander replied. ‘I don’t think we’ve had evidence that it was in the cargo.’

‘But there was nothing in the hold but cargo.’

‘So far as we know.’

‘Perhaps so.’ Jeffrey turned to Sutton. ‘What’s your view?’

‘It doesn’t look any too good to me either, sir,’ the detective answered. ‘There’s been some hanky-panky going on, and we haven’t got to the bottom of it.’

Jeffrey looked from one to the other. ‘It seems to me that both of you think the ship was deliberately sunk. Am I right?’

Alexander shook his head. ‘We’ve no evidence for that. We’ve no evidence for any conclusion. And more than likely there won’t be any.’

Jeffrey made a gesture of disagreement. ‘If there was no natural or ordinary cause for the explosions, it could surely only mean they were deliberately brought about?’

‘Quite. The difficulty is that not being able to find a natural or ordinary cause, is no proof that there wasn’t one.’

‘The lawyer’s mind, Alexander. I agree in theory, of course, but in actual life things are different. The obvious explanation is the true one ninety-nine times in a hundred.’

Alexander smiled. ‘There are two things we’ll be interested to hear at all events,’ he declared. ‘The first is: What was the nature of the cargo in that No. 2 hold? and the second: What was the relation of the insurance cover of the ship and cargo to their value?’

‘Ah yes, I agree with you there.’ Jeffrey paused, then went on. ‘Look here, they haven’t given us any too much time to get this blessed lunch. Let’s get on with it.’

‘I want something light,’ Alexander declared. ‘These afternoon sessions are sleepy affairs at the best.’

They compromised on omelettes followed by coffee, to the secret regret of Sutton, whose ideas of lunch ran more towards Porterhouse steak and onions, washed down by draught stout. By five minutes before two they were again in their places.

The proceedings reopened by the calling of Second Officer Blair. Here again there ensued a good deal of rather wearisome repetition of questions which had already been answered by the previous witnesses. Blair indeed had very little to say which added to the general knowledge. His opinion as to the position of the explosions agreed with Hassell’s and Arlow’s, but he had no suggestions to make as to their cause.

The only fresh information he gave was about the fire. When sent to investigate the first detonation he had at once made for No. 2 hold, believing that Arlow was already searching the forepeak and No. 1. There he had found that the door by which the hold was reached from amidships had been blown open and that smoke was pouring out. This smoke smelt of explosives and of burning wood. He had at once closed the door to cut off the supply of air, immediately informing the captain that there was fire in the hold. Steps were taken to deal with the outbreak, but before anything could be put into operation there were further explosions and No. 2 hold was pierced and became flooded. The fire had not penetrated above the level of this flooding and was therefore automatically extinguished.

Angus Mactavish, the chief engineer, was the next witness. After the usual questions as to qualifications and experience, he was asked to tell in his own words what he knew of the affair.

He said that on the evening before the explosions they had had a little trouble with one of the main bearings of the auxiliary engine which worked the dynamo, which had been inclined to heat. He had decided to light by oil and stop the engine to remetal the bearing. This had been done in the small hours of the morning, and the engine was then tested. He had lain down earlier, but had got up to inspect the work and to be present at the test. It thus happened that he was in the engine room at the time of the first explosion.

He did not know where the sound came from. It was not very loud, being muffled by the sound of the engines. He had wondered whether the trouble was in the stokehold, and had looked in. Everything, however, seemed to be right. As he had turned back to the engine room to make a closer inspection, the telegraph had rung for S
LOW
A
HEAD
. Directly he had slowed the engines and seen that the fire draught was reduced, the bridge speaking tube whistled. The captain had asked if anything were wrong, and he had reported all well in the engine room.

He had left the second engineer in charge of the engines and had gone back to the stokehold to make further enquiries about the noise. The firemen and trimmers on duty agreed that it was an explosion of some sort, apparently in the adjoining hold. While he was speaking to them the second explosion had come, and it sounded close as well as very heavy. He agreed it was in the hold at the other side of the stokehold bulkhead. So far as he could ascertain, however, no damage seemed to have been done to the ship.

On his own initiative he immediately got steam to all the pumps, so that if they should be wanted they could be brought into use with the minimum of delay. He was back in the engine room engaged in this work when the third explosion came. He ran into the stokehold but again he could not find anything wrong. However, he heard the ominous sound of water pouring into the ship, and ran back and started the pumps. The bridge whistled again on the speaking tube, and he reported accordingly.

Asked if he could estimate from what he had heard either the size or position of the hole, Mactavish said that he could not do so with any certainty. It sounded to him, however, as if it were in the bottom somewhere amidships. At all events the sound of flowing water was loudest in the centre of the ship, and grew more muffled as he moved towards the sides. As to the size, he had since worked out a rough calculation from the approximate time the hold had taken to fill, and it would seem to him that the hole must have been somewhere about two feet in diameter.

The captain had then called him up on the bridge for a consultation. No. 2 hold was by this time about full and the ship was badly down by the head. The captain had discussed the situation and it had been agreed that as the bulkheads might have been damaged by the explosions, they should be shored. He had then returned to the stokehold to get the shoring under way.

He was actually in the stokehold when the fourth explosion came. This was quite different from the preceding three. It was very much sharper and more severe, and the entire ship vibrated as if she had got a blow from some sort of giant hammer. The bulkhead had buckled; he had actually seen it coming forward. For a moment he thought it was going to give way entirely, which would, of course, have ended all their lives. It hadn’t done so, fortunately. It had remained curving inwards and for a moment it didn’t seem as if a great deal of harm had been done.

‘Can you estimate how far the bulkhead curved in from its former plane?’ Mr Armitage asked.

Mactavish thought about a foot. It was happily not enough to tear the bulkhead away from the sides of the ship, though it was enough to start the joints. Immediately the rivets down each side and along the bottom began to weep. The whole bulkhead had been shaken, and in his opinion it was only a question of time till it gave way altogether. He reported to this effect to the captain, who said he would come down to see the damage and discuss what was to be done.

He, Mactavish, continued getting his beams and struts into place, but as they worked the flow from the bulkhead grew steadily stronger. At that time the pumps were easily able to cope with it, but he was aware that if it continued to gain on them, the ship was doomed. She was low enough in the water as it was, and she could not carry much more weight.

The captain went away but returned after some time. The flow was then much stronger. He, Mactavish, was by now convinced that they could do nothing to stop it, and that they would be unable to save the ship. His pumps were still keeping the water down, but the increase in the flow was so rapid that they would not be able to do so long. He had tried to ease up the pressure with shores, but it took time to get the beams into position in the confined space of the stokehold, and he could not get a great deal of force to play. He admitted advising the captain to abandon ship. Under similar circumstances he would do it again. It had proved to be sound advice, for if they had delayed another half-hour they would all have gone to the bottom. The captain agreed after a short time, and he mustered his men and sent them on deck. He made them fire up the boilers before leaving, so that there would be steam for the pumps till the boats got away. He remained below himself till a call from the bridge told him that the boats were out. He and the captain were the last to leave the ship.

‘Now about the explosions,’ Armitage went on when the chief’s story had come to an end. ‘You say that the fourth shock was very much more severe than the other three. You mean that a bigger charge of whatever the substance was went off?’

‘No,’ Mactavish returned, ‘I didna say that. They might ha’ been the same as far as that was concerned.’

‘I don’t think I follow that. Would you please explain.’

‘Weel, the condeetions were no’ the same. In the case o’ the first three you had airr cushioning, the fourth occurred in water.’

‘You mean the water would carry the shock?’

‘Aye, but I mean more than that. If you explode against water, it’s nearly like a solid. The water would get driven outwards all round, but it wouldna compress like air would do. It couldna get out of the hole in the ship’s bottom, so it could only go outwards and upwards. And it couldna go very much upwards with the cargo.’

‘So it went outwards against the bulkheads?’

‘That’s so. And if the bulkheads hadna given in the centre by bulging, they would ha’ torn away, and she would ha’ gone straight down.’

‘How do you account for the first two explosions doing no apparent damage?’

‘I canna be sure, but I thought they had likely blown through the upper plating of her double bottom. If so, that would explain the third holing the lower plating.’

‘You mean that its protection would have been removed?’

‘That’s so.’

‘What space was there between the upper and lower plating?’

‘About three feet.’

‘Now, Mr Mactavish, from all you know of the affair, can you form any opinion as to the cause of the explosions?’

This was one of the questions that had been asked of each of the witnesses. And now the chief gave the same answer as his predecessors. He had no idea. There was nothing that he knew of about the ship or cargo which could possibly account for them.

‘Does that mean that in your opinion some explosive must have been deliberately smuggled aboard the ship?’

Mactavish was not going to be pinned to anything so definite. As the explosive went off aboard, he supposed it must have been brought aboard in some way, but he had no idea how.

Some further questions followed, and then the chief left the witness box. For a time the proceedings lost a good deal of their interest. The next dozen witnesses, though their examination was no doubt necessary, added nothing of value to the evidence. After the chief came his two assistants, a greaser, two firemen, a trimmer, the bosun, the carpenter, and certain members of the crew. All these gave their evidence clearly enough, but it simply confirmed what the principal officers had already said. All this weight of testimony did, however, tend to increase the belief of those listening, that the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, was being told.

By the time all these members of the crew had been examined, it was after five o’clock, and the proceedings were adjourned till the following morning. It was generally believed that the next day would complete the enquiry.

When the court reopened at ten o’clock the first witness called was the third officer of the
Barmore
.
He described the receipt of the wireless messages from the
Jane Vosper
,
the race to the scene of the disaster, and the picking up of the crew from the boats. This confirmed the statements already made, but there was one line which Mr Armitage opened up with him, saying he had omitted to obtain Captain Hassell’s views upon it.

This was the question of the amount of shipping which was in the neighbourhood at the time of the SOS. The witness was unable to state exactly what ships were close by, but he pointed out that both his own ship and the
Jane
Vosper
were on a frequented traffic path. Practically all ships from Europe to South America – certainly all coming from north of the Mediterranean – and vice versa – passed through the waters in question, and this represented a very considerable fleet. He was of opinion that a crew in distress in such locality would have a very good chance of being picked up by a passing ship.