DR. CAMERONasked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether the attention of his Department has been called to the case of the Elephant, a steamer of under 200 tons burden nett, which sailed from London, on February 17th, for Portsmouth, with a cargo of machinery intended for H.M.S. Impériouse, and is supposed to have gone down with all hands in the gale of 20th of February; whether it is a fact that she carried two boilers on deck, and that portions of the machinery carried projected through the hatchways, preventing them from being closed; and, whether she was inspected previous to being sent to sea; and. if so, by whom?
§ MR. CHAMBERLAINSir, the attention of the Board of Trade has been called to the case of the steamship Elephant, and I have ordered an inquiry into her loss by the Wreck Commissioner's Court. Until the Report of that Court has been received, I am unable to give a complete answer to the hon. Member's Question. I may say, however, that a Surveyor of the Board of Trade saw the Elephant the day before she left, and her disc was then considerably out of the water. No surveyor was present at the time she actually went away.