“I am very anxious indeed about the safety of Speers and his shipmates,” continued Mr. Lowington; “and I hoped, when I saw your steamer, that you would be able to give us some information in regard to the steamer picked up by the Tritonia.”
“We haven’t seen her; have we, Capt. Goodwin?” asked the judge, turning to the commander of the Marian.
“Think not: indeed, we have seen but one steamer during the trip, at least after we got off into blue water,” replied Capt. Goodwin.
“We saw a steamer towing a dismasted vessel, you remember,” interposed Dr. Phelps, the other gentleman of the party from the Marian, who was making the voyage for his health with his friend the judge.
“True: I did not think of her. The other was a P. and O. steamer, bound into Southampton,” added Goodwin. “What sort of a vessel was it the Tritonia picked up?”
“She is a screw steamer of about six hundred tons, three masts, square-rigged forward,” replied Mr. Pelham. “She is painted black; and her cabin is under a poop-deck. She is long, and very narrow for her length. Her name is the Ville d’Angers, and she has a French register. She was abandoned by her ship’s company, for she had a hole stove in her starboard bow by a collision with another vessel; but her damages had been thoroughly repaired.”
“The steamer that was towing the dismasted vessel corresponds to the description you give of the Ville d’Angers,” said Capt. Goodwin. “But I suppose half the steamers that ply between the ports of England and the Continent would fill the bill as well.”
“I was looking through the glass at that steamer for half an hour,” interposed Dr. Phelps. “I was sitting on deck with nothing else to do; and I was trying to ascertain the condition of things on board of the dismasted vessel.”
“Did you notice any thing particular about her?” asked Capt. Goodwin. “But we didn’t go within two miles of her; though I noted in my log the fact that we passed a steamer towing a dismasted vessel.”
“The glass was a very powerful one; and I tried to make out the people on board of the wreck and of the steamer, but I could not.”