A Coroner's Jury met at Shadwell on Saturday, to inquire
into the circumstances attending the explosion on board of the Victoria steam ship. Air. Clarkson appeared as counsel for the Hull Steam-packet Company. Several witnesses were examined. Thomas Smith, at coal- trimmer and fireman on board the Victoria, said that the vessel was lautsched in 1837, and had only made three voyages ; that her engines did not work well during the last voyage, and that there was difficulty in getting up the steam. The principal engineer regulated the tires and the engine, the Captain having nothing to do with that department. The engine was stopped before the explosion took place ; the noise was not very great, but hissing like that made by the turning of it top : the engine-room was tilled with steam and boiling water. which caused the instant death of four men. The Wilberforce passed atter the ex • plosion. William Charles Ellis, Secretary to the British mid Foreign School Society, described in written evidence the collision with the brig,, and the explosion, but stated no new filets. He said that the Captain was not at all anxious to keep ahead of the Wilberforce.
Mr. Clarkson stated that the collier brig was the outer one of the tier, and one more than there ought to have been : she had been warned off by the proper authorities.
Several witnesses spoke favourably of Captain Bell's activity and at- tention to his vessel ; he did not attempt to race with the opposition packet. The Jury went on board the Victoria ; and one of them, Mr. Young, an engineer and boiler-maker, having inspected the furnace mid boiler, reported that he found a rent in it twelve inches long near the Slue. Tile supply of water appeared to have been nearly cut off. Captain Bell said, that new gratings had been put in the furnaces, before they left Hull for the last time, of a different construction to those generally in use, and that consequently be had found it difficult to procure steam. In his opinion, the men, determined to get steam somehow, had cut off the supply of water, and thus caused the explo- sion. The other boilers were going, and were red hot when the explo- sion occurred.
Mr. J. W. Hall said, that he was of opinion that the supply of water bad been cut off by the men. In answer to a remark that the engine-room was narrow and confined, he said that more room could not be spared, as a great deal was needed for luggage. The Jury went On board another steam-boat lying alongside, and one of them observed that the engine-room was "as a palace to a cottage" compared with the Victoria's. The Jury were then discharged, with directions to meet again on Tuesday. Our that day they reassembled accordingly, and viewed the body of James Asher, one of the wounded men, since dead. The Coroner read a paper containing suggestions to scientific men who might examine the vessel previously to giving evi- dence; also a letter from a Mr. Hilditch of York, who said, that before the accident in March lust, Mr. Holden, an engineer of Hull' had assured him that the Victoria's machinery was not constructed on a safe principle. The inquest was then adjourned till such time as the Coroner shall reassemble the Jury. There have been altogether ten deaths occasioned by the accident.
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