§ MR. MACIVERasked the President of the Board of Trade, If he can give any explanation of the circumstances under which the name of Mr. Mac Iver, M.P., was inaccurately inserted in Parliamentary Return No. 258, in connection with the loss of the steamer Stromboli, amongst a "list of Delegates and Members of Parliament who, during the five years ended 1882, lost 65 ships, with 367 lives;" whether it is within the knowledge of the Board of Trade that the Stromboli belonged to the Cunard Company at the time of her loss, and that Mr. Mac Iver, M.P. had absolutely nothing to do with her, having sold his interest in the Cunard steamers, and retired from the firm of D. and C. Mac Iver on the 30th September 1874, some five years previous to the disaster; and, if it is true that the Board of Trade, upon being asked to correct their mistake, not merely omitted to do so, but wrote, attributing to Mr. Mac Iver, M.P. the loss of the steamer Thessaly, which had not been lost, and suggesting that he might write to the newspapers?
§ MR. CHAMBERLAINThe compilers of the Return were not aware at the time that the hon. Member for Birkenhead had ceased to belong to the firm of D. and C. Mac Iver or Burns and Mac Iver, and the Stromboli was entered in the Return as having been wrecked; but in the Return the name of "C. Mac Iver" was entered in the column for name and address of owner, and the hon. Member's own name was only entered as a delegate. As regards the Thessaly, she did belong to Mr. D. Mac Iver, and she was reported as wrecked; and her crew were taken off by another vessel. She was what is known as a "constructive" total loss, for it appears that she was subsequently got off the rocks and repaired. She was, however, reported to the Board of Trade and the Registrar General of Shipping as a wreck, and her certificate registry was cancelled in consequence. A full Return of the loss of ships during the last five years, with the names of the owners, has been ordered, on the Motion of the hon. Member for Carnarvonshire (Mr. Rathbone). In this Re- 1457 turn I will take care that the name of the ship which was lost during its ownership by Mr. D. Mac Iver is correctly stated as the Thessaly, and not the Stromboli.
§ MR. MACIVERI am sure that the House will allow me to say that it is not true that the Thessaly was ever a constructive total loss, though she was on the rocks. She was the property of the Company of which I was Chairman, and, as far as I know, she is in perfect safety at the present moment.
§ MR. CHAMBERLAINThe statement of the hon. Member is not inconsistent with my own. It is a peculiarity of constructive total losses that in many cases after the vessel has been returned as lost it is again repaired. The hon. Member himself, in a letter, states the steamer Thessaly was stranded in 1879, and was consequently removed from the Register.
§ MR. MACIVERI think I may be allowed to say that a constructive total loss means that a ship has been seriously damaged and has been handed over to the underwriters. The ship in question met with a serious disaster; but she was got off the rocks, and I myself paid more than one-fourth of the cost. She was distinctly not a constructive total loss.