ANDREW BROWN MCKENZIE, examined by Mr. Box, said: I am a shipwright, and have been about thirty-six years, more or less, in that business. I have been on board the _Alert_ several times, and have known the vessel for a long time. She had very fine lines, and was very sharp foreward and aft. She had no bearings under her counter. Any time I saw her, she never had more than about eighteen inches of freeboard. To look at the vessel, she was like a snake in the grass. If the engines had been more amidships, she would have been a better vessel. The pantry window should not have been where it was; but being there, it should have been protected. I knew the engine room and stoke-hole. There ought to have been a tarpaulin on top of the grating. The _Alert_ was very long and narrow, and should have had another mast placed aft with sail on it to help if the engines got disabled. A wooden awning covered the ship’s poop, and, in my opinion, it should have been made of canvas, so that it could be taken in when blowing. The bunker lids should have been fastened in with a turn screw, the same as the lid of an iron tank. Cross-examined by Mr. Mitchell: I have been eight years at sea. I am the plaintiff’s father, and was on board the _Alert_ seeing my son-in-law just before the fatal voyage. I have built all sorts of ships in the old country, and have built vessels here for the Melbourne Shipping and Coal Company. _Q._—Do you seriously say that this ship, the _Alert_, was like a snake in the grass?. _A._—Yes. That was my opinion of her. She was so long and low. I did not take particular notice of the pantry window, but if the brass bolts dropped out, the aperture could not be properly secured. I saw the grating on the stoke-hole. I say that a seaman could not with his hands have secured anything on that grating to prevent the water from coming in. In times of storm it is too late to think of these things. They ought to be provided for before a vessel leaves a port. As a rule it is the ship’s carpenter, who, under the instruction of the captain, sees to these matters, but the _Alert_ had no carpenter.