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- Edition: The Loss of the London 1866 The Loss of the London 1866
THE LOSS OF THE LONDON.
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TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir, - The letter in your columns of this day signed “J. RICKETT” gives the best solution I have yet seen of the cause of the loss of the unfortunate London. I have been in a like situation to that desribed by him in a ship of the late East India Company; the dead weight of shot, &c., in the hold making the ship roll like the pendulum of a clock. Mr. RICKETT says he will not go into the question of “keeping royal masts aloft in bad or winter weather.” It will be in his recollection that the ships of the late East India Company invariably crossed the Bay of Biscay with short, stump, topgallantmasts, which were easily either housed or sent on deck. If we add to this that our crews were sufficient in number and nearly all Englishmen and seamen, we may compare favourably our old care and seamanship with those of the modern school; the liberality of our old masters (the East India Company) with the somewhat penurious policy of the shipowners of the present day.
I am, Sir, very faithfully your,
J. R. ADAMS, late H.E.I.C.