§ MR. J. C. MACDONA (Southwark, Rotherhithe)I beg to ask the Secretary to the, Admiralty, whether he is aware that Captain M'Kinstry, R.M.S., 1564 of the White Star steamship Adriatic, reported on the 15th instant that on Friday the 22nd ultimo, in latitude 51.10 N., longitude 16.25 W., he passed a derelict barque named Lyndsay, with all rigging standing, and fore and main lower topsail set, that had drifted west by north over 100 miles from where she had been seen four days previously, as reported by the steamship Catalonia; and since that report, the White Star steamship Teutonic, on the 19th instant, reported her owners' offices in Liverpool that on the 1st March, at 1.48p.m., in latitude 50.28 N., longitude 21.40 W., she passed a derelict Norwegian barque Birgitte, waterlogged, not far from the coast of Ireland, in the direct track of Transatlantic steamers; and whether, under these circumstances of great peril to British commerce and passenger traffic, he will take immediate steps to discover these derelicts?
§ MR. EDMUND ROBERTSONThe circumstances of the reports of these vessels are not such as to put them into the category of those rare cases which have caused the Admiralty, from time to time, to consent to the diversion of a man-of-war from her other duties, for the purpose of searching for a derelict. There is no evidence to show that these, vessels (which have not been reported since the dates named, except that the Lyndsay was seen again the next day, the 23rd) have not followed the usual course and foundered after floating for some days; while the presence of a large quantity of floating wood not far from where the Lyndsay was last seen, seems especially to point to this conclusion in her case.