THE COLLISION BETWEEN THE ALBERTA AND THE MISTLETOE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 429, 28 October 1875, Page 3

THE COLLISION BETWEEN THE ALBERTA AND THE MISTLETOE.

[Fall Mall Budget .] Public attention has been largely occupied with the circumstances that have transpired in respect to the fatal collission between the Royal yacht Alberta and the Mistletoe in the Solent on the 18th August. The divers who had been sent to the wreck of the Mistletoe succeeded on Thursday afternoon in recovering the body of Miss Anne Peel. A hole had to be cut in the sail to permit its removal, and it was taken by a tender to Portsmouth. The lady’s watch had stopped at five minutes past six o’clock. The inquest upon the body of Thomas Stokes, the sailing master, was opened on Thursday by the county coroner, and several of the Mistletoe crew were examined. The evidence showed that the schooner was only moving at the rate of only two or three knots an hour, and that she was tacking with the view of getting into Ryde. The Alberta had been seen from the time she was two miles off. The deceased was described as a very careful man, who always avoided going near a large ship or steamer. When the collision occurred both Miss Anne Peel and Stokes were getting up the side of the Alberta, but as the Royal yacht moved astern the rigging fell upon them and swept them into the water. On Friday the witnesses examined were Henry Brown, the coxswain of the gig; Mr E. S. Heywood, the owner ; Hiscock, the steward; and Captain Welsh, of the Alberta. The substance of it was that the schooner was taking a proper course for Ryde, which involved tacking. No alteration was made in her course until the collision was imminent when Brown assisted Stokes at the tiller in putting the helm hard down, with a view to receiving the shock less dangerously if possible. Mr Heywood emphatically denied that there was any idea of steering near the Queen’s yacht; he should have considered it an impertinence to have done such a thing. The Alberta did not alter her course until she was about two hundred yards from the Mistletoe, and then she was upon the latter in an instant. The

Alberta’s speed was about seventeen miles an hour; the Mistletoe had not caught the wind, and was only making two or three knots. If the broken rigging of the Mistle toe had remained over the bow of the Alberta Mr Heywood thought all could have scrambled over. Captain Welch assumed the entire responsibility of navigating the Alberta. He had seen the Mistletoe, and having marked the course he supposed she was taking went to the other end of the bridge to note two other yachts. Then he observed with alarm the Alberta’s foremost funnel was hiding the Mistletoe, showing that his course was right upon her. Prince Leiningen, who was standing beside him, rushed to the telegraph and signalled to the engineer to stop. Captain Welch followed with orders to “slow,” or “half-speed”— “ astern ! ” The collision then occurred. He justified the speed of the Royal yacht by the necessity for meeting the special train. Monday was occupied with the evidence of the officers on board the Royal yachts, including Prince Leiningen and Commander Fullerton, of the Alberta, Lieutenant Britten and Commander Sullivan, of the Victoria and Albert. They all agreed that Captain Welch navigated the Alberta according to rule, and charged the Mistletoe with causing the collision, by altering her course. Prince Leiningen said if the Mistletoe had not put her helm hard a-port the Alberta would have cleared her. He did not know that the Board of Trade limited the speed of steam vessels in any way. His Serene Highness said he had received a telegram from the Queen authorising him to read an extract from a private letter from herself. Her Majesty wrote :—“ I wish you to say how admirably I thought every one behaved ; with what rapidity the boats were lowered and officers and men jumped overboard to save lives; and I believe no one would have been saved otherwise.” Further on her Majesty says : “It was most sad that, in spite of Commander Fullerton’s noble efforts, the other poor young lady could not be saved, and that the poor old man died on board, and one more life was lost. ” The Queen on Saturday sent the Hon Harriet Phipps and some of the gentlemen of her household to Gairnshiel, to express her Majesty’s sympathy with Mr and Mrs Sydney Peel and their relatives on the recent sad occurrence. The remains of Captain Stokes, the master of the yacht, were interred on Sunday in the parish churchyard, Poole. About forty or fifty of the master mariners, pilots, and shipwrights of the town and several hundreds of the inhabitants joined in the procession.