§ LORD SUDELEYwished to ask the noble Lord who represented the Admiralty in that House a Question, of which he had given him private Notice —Whether he can afford their Lordships any further information with re- 1926 ference to the disaster which has befallen H.M.S. "Eurydice," by which so many lives have been lost?
LORD ELPHINSTONEMy Lords, it is with the deepest regret that I have to state that the reports which have appeared in the newspapers narrating the loss of the Eurydice are correct. Yesterday afternoon, in a snowstorm, the Eurydice foundered within two miles and a-half of the Isle of Wight, with over 300 men and boys on board, and with two exceptions the whole perished. Only two were saved of the entire number of officers and crew. Since I came into the House, I have received a statement which enables me to give some particulars as to the Eurydice, which may be of interest to your Lordships. She was originally a 26-gun frigate, built by Admiral Elliot in 1842, for the purpose of competing withthe well-known ships built by Sir William Symonds. She was in every respect a most excellent and seaworthy ship. She was first commanded by the present Sir Georgo Elliot, and, subsequently, in 1854 and 1857, by Captains Ommaney and Tarleton, on the West India Station. When last year it was decided by Mr. Hunt to employ in training-ships the second-class ordinary seamen attached to the Reserves in home ports, the Eurydice, after repairs by White, of Cowes, was fitted out for a training-ship, 22 out of her 26 guns having been removed, four being left for the purposes of exercise. Various alterations had been made to give more room, and before she was put in commission her stability, which had been increased, was tested. In all other respects, such as spars, &c, she was unaltered. The officers were specially selected. She was commissioned by Captain Hare, in February, 1877. That gallant officer had been in command of the Boscawen, the training-ship for boys at Portland. Lieutenant Tabor had been a lieutenant of the Narcissus from 1870 to 1872, when she was flagship of the Flying Squadron, during which time he kept watch, the ship being nearly always under sail. He was afterwards first lieutenant of the Cruiser, sailing-ship, which was used in the training of ordinary seamen in the Mediterranean, in which ship he served three years and a-half. The other lieutenants were selected for their promising characters. The Eurydice had been on 1927 a cruise to the West Indies, for which station she left England in November, 1877. Her crew consisted of her proper complement of officers and petty officers, who were permanent, and of as many ordinary seamen as she could carry with comfort. She carried the same ballast as on former occasions, a rather larger quantity of water, and her rig was the same as before; and she carried four 64-pounder guns on the main deck. The wreck lies in 11 fathoms of water, two miles and a-half E.N.E. from Dun-nose, with half of her topsails, and rigging above water. From an examination made of the rigging, it is concluded that the crew were engaged in shortening sail when the accident occurred, as the fore and main sheets and main-topsail halyards were found let go, and the foretopmast studding-sail and driver were partly taken in. No bodies or wreckage have been found beyond what were picked up at first. What actually occurred at the time of the foundering the Admiralty do not know, and it is doubtful whether any light will be thrown on it. I should not be doing justice to my own feelings, nor, I am sure, to those of your Lordships, if I did not express deep and sincere regret at the occurrence, and sympathy for the friends and relatives—some of whom, I fear, are parents—of those who have boon lost.