§ MR. MACDONA (Southwark, Rotherhithe)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that on the 17th instant the steamship La Plata reported upon her arrival at Liverpool that on the 12th instant, 41.35 N.—10.20 W., she passed a partially-submerged vessel about 100 feet long, with heavy bilge frames, about eight feet out of water, evidently a long time in the water, and most dangerous to navigation; and will he notify the existence of this dangerous floating derelict to the masters of our marine about to leave our ports?
§ MR. BRYCEI am aware that the La Plata reported on her arrival at Liverpool on the 17th instant that she had passed a partially-submerged derelict. The report was published by Lloyd's in The Shipping and Mercantile Gazette and Lloyd's List of the following day, the 18th instant, for the general information of mariners. The position of the derelict on the 12th instant was reported to be about 20 miles off the coast of Portugal, and I am advised that, in the absence of further information, it would be useless and even misleading to follow the practice adopted in all suitable cases, and to publish its position on that day in the monthly summary of notices to mariners issued by the Board of Trade early in August, as this derelict will probably, in the three weeks which will then have intervened, either have drifted on shore or be well out of the stream of traffic.
§ MR. MACDONAI would ask the right hon. Gentleman if it would not be of the greatest importance that information should be conveyed direct from the Board of Trade to the shipmasters?
§ MR. BRYCEIn this particular case it would appear that everything possible to be done was done, because the La Plata made a report at Liverpool on the 17th, and on the 18th the report appeared in The Shipping and Mercantile Gazette. As far as this instance goes, the report could not have been published more expeditiously than it was.