§ MR. GOURLEY (Sunderland)asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, If it is correct that the gunboat Wasp, designed and built with very high bulwarks, was sent to sea with deck ports insufficient for the escape (when breaking on board) of heavy seas from the decks; whether this defect has been rectified in gunboats of similar type; and, by whose instructions a vessel constructed primarily fur inshore and river service was sent to sea during the typhoon season?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON) (Middlesex, Ealing)No; the freeing scuttles of the Wasp were exceptionally numerous, and of a largo relative area. On the suggestion of the naval officers at the ports where they were fitting out, some additional freeing scuttles have been cut in vessels of similar type; but they were not considered necessary for the safety of the vessel. The Wasp was constructed for the general requirements of the service at sea, and to encounter any weather to which she might have been exposed; and not, as the hon. Member implies, for river service.