MR. PURVES, the learned Q. C., in his address on behalf of the defendants, stated that “Ponting was not the only man who saw the _Alert_ founder. There was another eye-witness whom he (Mr. Purves) would produce to tell the court that he saw the ship overwhelmed with three tremendous seas.” It is almost needless to say that Mr. Purves did _not_ produce this other “eye-witness.” If there was, or is, really another man besides Ponting who saw the _Alert_ go down, why in the name of humanity did he not report the occurrence at the time? Had he done so a number of valuable lives might have been saved, or at least steps might have been taken in the direction of making efforts to save them. The very first intimation, or knowledge, of the wreck of the _Alert_ was received from the lips of Ponting, the sole survivor, as he lay on Sorrento Beach, the day _after_ the ship had gone down, and if any human being on the shore witnessed the accident without drawing public attention to it at the time, I think he, or she, richly deserves to be indicted for manslaughter! True it is that Pilot Mitchell, in his evidence, stated that he “remembered the day the _Alert_ foundered, December 28, 1893, and that the occurrence was reported to him on that date;” but nevertheless I would rather believe that the shorthand writer made a mistake—or the witness himself made a slip of the tongue—than that he (Pilot Mitchell) really meant what he is credited with saying. A good deal of stress was laid by Mr. Purves on the fact that the _Alert_ was insured, this in itself being, as he said, “a proof of sea-worthiness.” I, however,—who ought to know at least quite as much about ships as Mr. Purves—contend that the fact of a vessel being insured is no more proof of sea-worthiness than the fact of one being uninsured would be proof of her unsea-worthiness. Indeed, many of the finest ships afloat are not insured at all, while some of the worst “coffin” ships that ever left a port are insured “up to the mast-head,” so to speak! This position of affairs need not cause the slightest wonder, for insuring a ship is not like insuring a man. The latter must die, and it is only a question of time when the insurance company must pay over the money. On the other hand, there is no “must” concerning the fate of a ship. The chances are great that she will be lost, but they are quite as great that she will _never_ be lost. Thousands of ships on which insurance premiums have been paid for years live to be old hulks, and finally get broken up without any responsibility on the part of insurance companies, and thousands of ships go to the bottom, some of them sent there by force of circumstances, and others by man’s cupidity, or stupidity!