call to prove that he saw these seas overwhelm the ship. Nothing in the world could have saved the ship under the circumstances, and it was preposterous to talk of the wreck being due to pantry windows, open gratings, or anything of that sort. In his (Mr. Purves’s) opinion Captain Mathieson committed an error of judgment in heading his ship to port instead of keeping her out to sea. The owners had every confidence in the ship, as was indicated in the fact that she was fully insured. EVIDENCE FOR THE DEFENDANTS. JOHN HORWOOD BARRETT, examined by Mr. Purves, stated: I am a master mariner and captain of the ship _Hesperus_. She is a full rigged ship of 1800 tons. I remember the 28th December, 1893. On that morning my vessel was to the westward of Cape Otway. Speaking from memory, we were steering east making round the Otway for Melbourne. The weather then was a heavy gale from the S. W., and that was a fair wind for me. We signalled to Cape Otway at 4.15 P. M. on the 28th, and then continued our course for the Heads after getting the proper position. Our course would be about north-east, half north. I came along as far as Split Point, and then hove to because there was a heavy sea running from the S. W. I considered it prudent to come on, as far as the ship’s safety was concerned, but I did not think it was just to come on to the Heads and take a pilot out of the schooner in such a sea as that. Therefore, on account of the danger to which the pilots would be exposed, I hove the ship to at ten P. M. till two o’clock next morning. During all that time it was blowing a strong gale with heavy squalls. _Q._—I will ask you to come on board a little steamer one hundred and sixty-nine feet long, nineteen feet six inches beam, and nine feet six inches depth. She passes Wilson’s Promontory at nine in the morning, goes through the Straits and on to two miles off Cape Schanck, carrying with her a south-east gale and south-east sea, and does not ship any water. What is your opinion of her being sea-worthy? _A._—I should think she was decidedly a sea-worthy vessel. _Q._—Approaching the Schanck her captain desires an offing, and takes the ship out to windward six miles. Meanwhile the wind veers round to S. W., and Captain Mathieson shifts his course and makes for the Heads. He carries with him probably the same sea he had before, and he is overwhelmed in ten minutes by several seas, and ultimately the vessel founders. Might that not happen to any ship? _A._—Certainly; to any vessel if she happened to keep away under those conditions.