The Tug Mogul's Last Run and the Engineers Who Took the Blame

VICTORIA, May 15.—To the Editor: In your issue of May 17 there appears a dispatch from Port Townsend regarding the loss of tug Mogul, in which the actions of the engineers are grossly misrepresented. Of course, among engineers such statements as the one referred to are taken little notice of, but when two of their number are charged, tried and convicted for the loss of a steamer (without a hearing) it is time that they spoke up for themselves. If the boat had been properly equipped it might have been possible for her to have reached Neah Bay, but under the circumstances it was an utter impossibility. All pumping apparatus available was working to its full capacity, and if the main injection pipe had been cut (which was the only means of applying the circulating pump to the bilge, there being no bilge injection fitted), it would only have been the matter of a few revolutions till the valve gratings would have become choked with coal. Watch was carried off by the rush of water, and the engines brought to such a state that no headway could be made. So far as the air pump was concerned it was a matter of breaking in the condenser, and had that been done the coal would soon have stopped its working. As to the amount of water entering the steamer your correspondent has not the slightest foundation for his assertion, and as for the chief engineer being excited it is a downright falsehood, as there was no excitement among any of the engine room staff. I believe that Capt. Webby is too much of a gentleman to blame the engineers for the loss of the steamer without at first making a thorough inquiry. If the deck department of steamers was run as efficiently as the engine room there would seldom be any need of extra pumps being used. — T. F. M.