§ MR. J. O'CONNOR (Wicklow, W.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if he has seen in the Irish papers of 2nd February the report of an inquest held at Stradbally, on the coast of Kerry, on the bodies of Captain Forbes, first mate, charles Albert Boyle, and a Norwegian, name unknown, all of the barque Port Yarrock, which was wrecked at Brandon Bay on Monday 29th January, and 20 lives lost; whether he has read the evidence of Pilot Lynch, who stated that Captain Forbes refused the assistance of a Limerick pilot to conduct the Port Tarrock to the Shannon, and also the offer of the tug boat the Flying Huntsman to tow the Port Yarrock to safe anchorage at Fenit, on the Shannon; whether he has read the evidence of William M'Cowen, Lloyd's agent at Tralee, who deposed that when Captain Forbes reached Tralee on the 20th January, he (M'Cowen) told the captain that Brandon was not a safe anchorage, and 1139 offered two steamers to tow the vessel to Fenit; that M'Cowen read at the inquest copies of telegrams which he had sent to the owners and to Lloyd's warning them of the dangerous position of the Port Yarrock; that he received no reply to his messages; and that from the 20th to the 28th of January, the day of the wreck, neither Lloyd's nor the owners sent any assistance to the vessel; whether he is aware that the Fenit lifeboat failed to render any help to the crew of the Yarrock; whether M'Cowen further stated that the lifeboat at Fenit was utterly useless, and had never saved a life; whether the coroner's jury stated that within the last 40 years 23 vessels have been wrecked at Brandon Bay, and their crews lost, and that a coastguard station, with an efficient crew and life-saving apparatus, should be established at Brandon, and that a telegraph station at Castlogregory is absolutely indispensable in view of the frequent shipwrecks and loss of life on that part of the coast of Kerry; whether the owners of the Port Yarrock have been asked to explain their failure to send the promised tug boat to the assistance of Captain Forbes; and whether any steps will be taken by the Board of Trade to give practical effect to the suggestions of the coroner's Jury?
§ MR. MUNDELLAI have already informed the House on two previous occasions that I have ordered a formal inquiry to be held into the loss of the Port Yarrock, and that, pending the result of that inquiry, I think it only right that I should defer making any definite statement with regard to the several points raised in the question. I may, however, add that, according to Board of Trade records, only seven vessels have been wrecked and eight lives lost in Brandon Bay since January 1, 1865.