Part of the
Acorn Archive
Hearts of Oak
SS Amazon
Destruction of
the Steamship by Fire with Great Loss of Life
The Inquiry
The inquiry was instituted by
the directors of the Royal Mail Steampacket Company.
The directors of the company
and others present were:
Captain Shepperd - Chairman
Captain Chappell – Secretary
Colonel Short, Captain
Mangles, Captain Nelson & Captain Whish
Captain Corry - Admiralty Superintendent
of Packets at Southampton
Captain Walker - from the
Board of Trade
Captain Barton - The
Company's Superintendant at Southampton
Mr G Mills - The
Engineer-in-Chief
Captain Chapman - Commander
of the TAY
[Who had much to reflect upon, as it was he who was intended to have
been on the Amazon]
Captain Abbott - Commander of
the THAMES
~~~~~
The statements have already
declared such summaries as bring alarm mind and soul.
The unexplained appearance of
the fire from the starboard fore stokehole,
the rapidity with which it
spread, the impossibility of stopping the engines or of using the water pumps,
the raging and all consuming
fire spreading and burning the boats - their only possibilty of any escape,
the madness of launching the boats whilst fast underway, the
fierceness of the seas,
the apparent want of
discipline or knowledge of duties in an emergency on a new ship,
A certain belief that there
was a lack of knowledge in releasing the boat's keel cranes,
the anxieties of captain and
chief officers unable to extinguish the fire in such a hopeless situation,
crew and passengers were one
and the same, humanity begging for salvation from the horrors,
the choices of being broken
by the boats, drowned, dragged under by the paddles threshing away,
choked by smoke, burned and
consumed by fire….. all was hopeless.
And the finality of the
exploding magazine,
then the all consuming silent
darkness of an open boat
with nothing to think about
but to survive
and to reflect upon the
terrors and the scenes they had experienced.
For anyone to have escaped,
was a miracle itself.
Witnesses Called
Part 1 Charles Laing, John Lamont, George Deal,
Alexander Lang
Part 2 Daniel Brown, George Harding, Thomas Attwood
Part 3 Henry Carter, William Goodman, George
Tucker, Joseph Welsman,
John W Rogers, Frederick Wall,
Michael Gould and Mr Vincent
Raymond Forward