Harbour Commissioners

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=185 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="040b9c00dduajq.jpg"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="70" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 76 WIDTH="66"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="76" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="66" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="1d2a26a0.jpg" border=0 width="162" height="106" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>Falmouth Gasworks</B></div> <div> <B>(Crop from CSL-14)</B></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFBF0" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Falmouth Packet Archives 1688-1850</B></FONT>    |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Falmouth Packet Archives 16881850"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tallships Falmouth for Orders"><U>'Tallships' & "Falmouth for Orders"</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id121.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Falmouth Docks"><U>Falmouth Docks</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Falmouth Pilots"><U>Falmouth Pilots</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id144.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Training Ships based at Falmouth "><U>Training Ships based at Falmouth </U></A>   |   <A HREF="id85.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tugs Local Steamers "><U>Tugs & Local Steamers </U></A>   |   <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Shipping Agents"><U>Shipping Agents</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id116.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lifeboat"><U>Lifeboat</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id122.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Harbour Master"><U>Harbour Master</U></A>   |   <B>Harbour Commissioners</B>   |   <A HREF="id131.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Misc"><U>Misc</U></A></div> <div> Harbour Commissioners</div> <bR> <bR> <div> FP 22/5/1897:          Harbour Board Meeting.     Pilots and their Tariff.</div> <div> The <B>commissioners offered no objection to the Falmouth Gas Company laying down a suitable berth for vessels to discharge their coal cargoes alongside the company's works</B>.</div> <bR> <div> Mr Webber stated that the pilots would like the tariff to be the same as that at Queenstown, so that captains should not complain that Falmouth's charges were higher. … Mr. Truscott asked what the Harbour Board had to do with the matter. … the <B>commissioners of the pilotage Committee</B> do not want to be in conflict with the <B>Harbour Board</B>,…. Mr. Pearce said <I>so far as the harbour Board was concerned, it was merely complimentary to bring it before the members</I>.  Mr. Truscott said he did not think one-half of the captains would know whether a charge had been made. So it was not likely to affect the interest of this port.[!]  Mr. Gundry: Would it keep vessels from coming here? - Mr. Webber: I don't think so. - This ended the discussion on the subject. </div> <bR> <div> FP 22/5/1897:     The Coal Cart Nuisance.</div> <div> The Gas Company (recently reduced the price of gas) <B>directors are "considering the advisability" of discharging the coal cargoes alongside the Company's works instead of conveying it through the main thoroughfare in carts. </B> This process has always been a source of considerable annoyance. </div> <bR> <div> FP 22/5/1897:      <B>Boatmen's Licences </B>to the number of 55 have been issued for the ensuing twelve-months by the Harbour Board.</div> <bR> <div> FP 15/4/1899:     The [Greenbank] ferry boat disas <A NAME="greenbank_ferry_disaster"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> One experienced juror, a pilot, averred that the weather was so bad on the morning of the mishap, that the men on board the cutter to which he belonged agreed that it would be foolhardy to attempt to reach shore from their vessel moored in the inner harbour. … We do not blame the men, as much as we do the proprietor, and still more the Harbour Board, who have, so it seems, persistently ignored the requests of the Board of Trade to compel the owner  of the ferryboats to have them licensed.  Even the coroner went out of his way to call public attention to the antiquated description of the services for carrying passengers to and from the Greenbank to Flushing, and he might have added a condemnatory word or two concerning the dilapidated condition of the steam ferryboats which do duty between Market Strand and the village on the other side of the streak of blue.</div> <bR> <div> FP 15/4/1899:     The Ferryboat Fatality - Censures by the Jury, All round laxity.</div> <div> Ernest Austin Drew, aged 12, of 2 Porhan-street, was recovered by a boatman whilst searching for a sunken boat [on the Monday following the Friday 6th April accident.]</div> <div> Matthew Laity, a fisherman, said he was hired for the day by Richard Tonkin, his brother-in-law to take his place on the ferry boat, Tonkin being unwell.  He started work at 9 a.m. and only one boat was kept running.  </div> <div> <B>The boat had a centre keel, and was between 16 and 17 feet in length and about 6 feet beam.</B></div> <div> Without the centre keel, she could only be about 6 ins deep in the water.</div> <div> <B>The owner of the boat was Mr. John Mead, and it was an unlicensed ferry.</B></div> <div> He did not know how many the boat was supposed to hold, but should think it would carry from 10-15 passengers.</div> <div> About 10.30 in the morning in question, he put off from Flushing quay.  The wind was very squally, about W.N.W., whilst it was flood tide.</div> <div> It was very rough because the wind was against the tide.</div> <div> William Henry Lang, who had several years experience in connection with the boat, was in charge.</div> <div> There were 3 passengers, the deceased, a little girl named Tregido, and Watts, a <I><B>Ganges</B></I> man. They sat aft.</div> <div> There were two <I>leg of mutton </I>sails up closed reefed. And the centre board was down.</div> <div> Witness had the halliard in his hand, the sheet being belayed on the lee quarter, so that he had only to loose the halliard and the sail ought to have come down.  There was so much strain, however, that the patent sheaf did not act, and the sail would not come down.</div> <div> The Coroner: But you are a practical man, and had the lives of passengers entrusted to you, and, didn't it occur to you that holding the halliard was of no practical use?</div> <div> No, I had nothing to say about it, because I was acting under another who had been accustomed to the boat for years.</div> <div> The Coroner: it does not require much experience to know that the sail will not come down when there is a list. [with the sheet belayed]</div> <div> Witness: But why did it always come down before? - I simply did as I was told.</div> <div> The Coroner: Was it not foolish for you to hold the halliard instead of the sheet?</div> <div> Witness:  I did as I was told</div> <div> A Juror:  The sheet should have been held in the middle part of the boat.</div> <div> Witness said he did not think there was sufficient  weigh on the boat when struck [by the squall] to run up into the wind.  They saw the squall coming when half way across.  His mate called him to drop the halliard.  The boat heeled over, and the sail did not come down until it touched the water. </div> <div> A Juror:  <B>Where is Mr. Mead, the proprietor?  He ought to be examined.</B></div> <div> Police Sergeant Waring: <B>I am told he has gone to Fowey races.</B></div> <div> A Juror: He ought to be subpoened.  <B>Mr. Mead ought not to have wanted telling to come.</B></div> <div> …. For some inexplicable reason the falmouth Harbour Board had not yet ordered the boats to be licensed, although the Board of Trade had said that the owner of the boats was liable to a penalty whilst they remained unlicensed.</div> <div> A Juror: I think <B>the Greenbank is outside the jurisdiction of the Harbour Board. </B>[but with the jurisdiction of the Port of Truro]</div> <div> A Juror: It must have been sheer ignorance on the part of the men in charge to belay the sheet when there were hoops on the mast.</div> <div> Witness: There were no life saving appartus on board.</div> <div> The Coroner: The ferrymen could not have done it wilfully, because their own lives were in danger.  It certainly was a very primitive and very poor method of getting across such a very important piece of water.</div> <div> A Juror commented that the boat ought to have floated. It had evidently been patched up with pitch and putty and all kinds of stuff, and was water sodden, without any ballast. "It was like making lifebelts with iron"</div> <div> The jury were of the unanimous opinion "That the attention of the Board of Trade should be called to the neglect of the Harbour Commissioners in not taking steps to cause the boats belonging to Mr. Mead to be duly licensed, although they had been requested by the board of trade to do so."</div> <bR> <div> Visitors to the <B>Greenbank Hotel</B> made a collection of nearly £5 for those who assisted in rescuing the occupants of the boat.  The money has been handed over to the mother of the boy. </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>