JAMES SCOTT SUTHERLAND, examined by Mr. Williams, deposed: I am a shipwright, and have had experience of about fifty years. I knew the S. S. _Alert_ for about seventeen years. I never worked on board of her until on the last occasion, when she got new engines, about two years ago. I was employed by Mr. Grant. My work was principally in the stoke-hole and engine room putting beams and flooring down there, and also in the cargo hold. I had an opportunity of judging her. In my opinion she was never intended for an ocean going vessel. I think she was altogether out of proportion by being too long for her depth and width, and too fine in her after section. She could scarcely have any freeboard according to her depth. If she were drawing nine feet six inches aft, and only had nine feet depth of hold, she could not have any freeboard. On the top of the boiler there was a skylight, and just at its after part were some gratings. These gratings led down to the stoke-hole. There was no protection for them that I saw. I lined the bunker holes on her deck. The rims where the lid fits in were let down flush with the deck; a grating went into the flange on the inside, and the lid went down on that again. From having passed over it, I say the whole was level with the deck. The vessel sat in the water with her bows up. If she shipped any water she could not help taking it into the alleyways. There were two little ports, one on each side of the bulwarks, to take the water away. There were none foreward in front of the engine room. I did not notice the window in the poop. I do not consider the wooden awning much of a disadvantage, except that it would give her extra top weight when she was off an even keel. It would do for the Bay trade, but for encountering a heavy gale there should have been a canvas awning. I do not consider forty-four tons of wattle bark and furniture a sufficient cargo to put her on an even keel. She would not be in proper trim to go to sea. Cross-examined by Mr. Mitchell: The awning would be about equal to the weight of a mast, and would make the vessel top heavy, otherwise it would make no appreciable difference. I was working inside, and anything I saw of the outside of the ship was from casually looking at her.