MR. DAWSONsaid, he wished to ask the President of the Board of Trade, Whether any detailed Report has been made to his Department of the loss of the Anglo-Saxon steamship, from Londonderry to Quebec, on the 27th April, and whether the circumstances of that lamentable event are correctly stated in the Public Press; also, whether the Government has ever refused permission for the use of Daboll's Fog Trumpet upon Cape Race in Newfoundland; and, if so, what were the grounds of such refusal?
§ MR. MILNER GIBSONsaid, in reply, that no detailed statement had been made to the Board of Trade in reference to the loss of the Anglo-Saxon, and the full par- 1690 ticulars of that melancholy event would not be known until the arrival of the next mail. With regard to the other question put by the hon. Gentleman, he had to say that last year the Associated Press of New York made a proposal to erect one of Daboll's Fog Trumpets on Cape Race, but it was not thought desirable by the Colonial Government or by the Government at home that a foreign company should occupy a site there for that purpose. The Board of Trade, however, had urged upon the steam shipowners the necessity of erecting some adequate fog signal upon that important headland. They had the power of erecting such a signal by imposing a toll upon the shipping which passed the Cape, but the shipowners stated, that although they would like a fog signal there, they would not like to be put to any expense for the maintenance of it. It had always been the practice when a toll was proposed to be placed for the first time upon the shipping interest, to consult that interest before taking such a step. With regard to the particular signal mentioned, it was not certain that it was a good description of fog signal, audit was most important in putting up a warning on any Cape or headland that it should be of a kind that could be relied upon, because if a signal were put up, it became an inducement to ships to venture nearer to the land than they otherwise would, and then, failing in hearing the signal, they would get ashore. Quite recently a steamer struck near Holyhead, though during a fog a gun was fired at intervals from the top of the mountain. A gun, however, had been thought the best signal, and it was a gun that was proposed to be placed on Cape Race when the attention of the shipowners was called to the subject. Daboll's invention was under the consideration of the Trinity Board in this country; and the Foreign Office also, feeling the importance of the question, applied at the close of last year to the United States Government for a Report from their Lighthouse Board as to the merits of this invention. The Report was, that it promised well, that they thought it worthy of a trial, but they did not go the length of saying that its value had been sufficiently proved to warrant its erection on so important a headland as Cape Race.
MR. DAWSONsaid, he wished to know whether the usual investigation would take place by the Board of Trade into the cause of this wreck?
§ MR. MILNER GIBSONsaid, there was very little doubt on that point, but he could 1691 not answer the question until the circumstances of the case were officially before the Department.