Michael Kidney (ANOTHER NON-SUSPECT)

Michael Kidney, another witness-turned suspect, proposed by the "black factions of Ripperology," will also be exonerated by the discovery of this article. What I would like to show at this time is the connection to Cardiff, stated to be where Mary Jane Kelly moved to as a youngster with her family, and how Stride and Kelly were stated to be friends. As you know, Stride was found to be aboard the Princess Alice, which I discovered a couple of years ago. Add to that the fact that Kidney is described as a waterside labourer - could he have been a coastguardsman in Cardiff at one time? It's possible, as we do not know his whereabouts in 1887.

THE LOSS OF THE S.S. TYNEDALE, OF CARDIFF.
BOARD OF TRADE INQUIRY AT SWANSEA.

The Board of Trade Inquiry into the loss of the s.s. Tynedale, of Cardiff, took place at the Guildhall, Swansea, on Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday, before J.C. Fowler, Esq., sitting as judge, with
Captains Wilson and French as nautical assessors. Mr. Edward Strick (Stricks and Bellingham) acted on behalf of the Board of Trade, while Mr. W.R. Smith appeared for the master, Captain Robert Jones;
Mr. Downing for the owners; and Mr. Ingledew for the owners of the cargo. Mr. Tillett, the managing owner, was present, and some gentlemen watched the case on behalf of the underwriters.
The Tynedale was a steamship which hailed from Cardiff. Her official number was 58,130. She was built of iron at Deptford, near Durham, in the year 1868. Her length was 181 feet, breadth 27 feet, and depth 15 feet,
and she was schooner rigged. She had two engines of the combined horse power of 80, and her tonnage, after deducting 182-1/2 for crew space, was 507-1/2 tons. She was owned by the Tynedale Steamship Company.
The Tynedale left Britonferry on the 8th of March for Belfast, with 700 tons of coal, and she struck and went down, totally disappearing from sight, soon after 11 o'clock on the same day in the channel of Jack's Sound, near Milford Haven.
The captain, Robert Jones, was on the bridge at the time, and there were two men at the wheel, prepared to overcome any difficulty from the race of the tide, which is very swift and strong in that Sound. Everything went well after leaving
Britonferry at early morning until 11:25, when the crew felt something grate against the ship's bottom. There was no real striking, nothing approaching a shock, but it simply appeared as if the ship had come into contact with a piece of timber
floating in the water. In a second or two, however, the ship came to a stop, and the water was found to be coming in forward. As soon as the difficulty was apprehended, the master gave orders to stop and then to reverse the engines, and this was done.
A man was sent down the fore-peak, and he reported that she was making water fast, and this was confirmed by the fact that she went down by the head as far as her hawse holes. She soon came off the bank or whatever she struck on, and, the engines being reversed,
she went astern, but she would not answer her helm at all. Orders were given to get the boats out, and this was done. It became apparent that the ship was going down, and the crew left her for the boats. The master was the last to leave her. Within eight or ten minutes of the feeling
the grazing against the bottom, the ship had been abandoned, and she had totally disappeared, masts and all, beneath the water. There was no explosion, and her engines were going until she went down. Another steamer, called the Sea Fisher, which was following the
Tynedale on her passage through Jack's Sound, and which stopped when she saw what had happened, afterwards took the crew into Milford. While they were in their boats, some fishermen came out to them and asked them if they had struck. They said they must have done
so or they would not have been in their then predicament. The fishermen said they did not know what she could have struck against in that place, but they remembered several ships which had struck somewhere about that part of the coast, and had been lost with all hands.
Captain Robert Jones, after being sworn, was examined at considerable length. He said that when the ship left Britonferry she was in good condition and well found. He had been told by the shipping agent at Britonferry to make as much haste as possible, because the coal was wanted
in Belfast. He chose his course through Jack's Sound and Ramsay Sound, off the coast of Pembrokeshire, because that would be a saving of three-quarters of an hour, and as the tide would be with the ship through the Sounds that would be a saving of about ten miles in the voyage,
and would enable him to get to Belfast in time for sufficient water alongside the quay. On previous occasions, because of the shortness of water there, his ship had to lie on the mud and to wait several hours before she could get under the cranes. He had been through Jack's Sound before
all right. The Tynedale was drawing 14 feet 9 inches, the weather was fine, and the sea was perfectly calm. He had an Admiralty Chart of the Sound, which showed there was three-and-a-half fathoms on the patches, the shoalest part of the Sound, at low water, so he had the right to conclude
there was plenty of water beneath him. He was himself on the bridge, and from the appearance of the water alongside he believed the run of the tide was in the same direction as the ship. Then came a sort of a grazing sensation under the ship. If the ship had not come to a stop shortly after,
he would have taken no notice of the circumstance, but would have considered that the ship had rubbed against some piece of timber. As soon as she stopped he ordered the engines to be put full speed astern, and afterwards half speed astern. She shortly afterwards backed off whatever she had
struck, and she then went down by the head as deep as the hawse holes. There was no chance of saving her. There was a sandy beach some distance off, and he would have run her aground there if he could have done so, but she would not answer her helm. He did try her going ahead, but he found
that by driving her against the water she was filling all the faster. The whole affair did not take ten minutes from the time when the grazing was felt till she went down. He did all that he could be done to save her, and he lost everything he had, his kit, which was not insured, his log-book, and everything except
his watch, which one of the men got for him. The men, too, lost nearly everything. The passage through Jack's Sound was a perfectly proper one to use when the weather was fine and in broad daylight, as on this occasion. He had been through it many times, and other steamers constantly used it as well as
Ramsay Sound. He knew the sailing directions warned strangers against it, but he was not a stranger to it, and he relied on the water depths marked on the Admiralty Chart.
Samuel Mutters, the chief mate, certificated; Samuel Gammon, able seaman; David Jones, able seaman; Robert Pearson, chief engineer; and Joseph Theaker, second engineer, all gave voluminous evidence clearly bearing out what the captain had deposed. Francis Hallums and Michael Kidney, two coastguardsmen
stationed at St. Anne's Head, were examined, but they did not add much to the evidence, as they had never been to Jack's Sound. Kidney, however, remembered that some years ago the steamship "Thomas Vaughan" was lost on that coast, the whole of the crew of thirteen and the pilot whom they had taken from Fishguard
being drowned. Thomas Lewis Edwards and Patrick Collins, two Pembrokeshire fishermen, gave evidence as to the state of the tide in and near Jack's Sound.
Mr. Walter John Tillett, said the Tynedale belonged to a Limited Liability Company, of which he was simply the manager. The company bought the ship in May, 1882, when they gave 7,350 pounds for her. She was found to be dear at the price, as she had to be renovated and re-classed, so that the total cost of her to the company
during the five years was 11,422 pounds. That sum he regarded as her value. In reply to further questions, Mr. Tillett said that the owner's company had placed the matter in Mr. Downing's hands as solicitor, and Mr. Downing had advised him respectfully to decline to give details touching value or insurance, as they regarded those questions
as quite irrelevant to the enquiry the court was now engaged in.
Mr. Vachell, on behalf of the owners of the cargo, addressed the Court, and contended that there had been gross negligence in the management of the ship, or she would never have been lost in fine weather and broad daylight in a part of the coast thoroughly well-known and charted.
Mr. Downing, for the owners of the ship, submitted that questions concerning value and insurance were wholly irrelevant to these inquiries, as was admitted in the practice of the Wreck Commissioner, Mr. Rothery, and he asked that this Court should take the same view in answering the questions before them.
Mr. W.R. Smith made an eloquent speech on behalf of the Captain, and called Captain Richard Barret and Captain Geo. Johnson, who deposed that they had been through Jack's Sound many hundreds of times at all hours of day and night and all states of tide. It was the usual course and perfectly safe for all who knew it.
Captain Barret said he had reason to believe, from his own observation and from talk with others, that there was not as much water on the Patches at low water as the Admiralty chart indicated. Mr. W.R. Smith founded upon this a poweful defence of the Captain, against whom there was nothing before.
The judgment of the Court was, as usual, in the form of replies to the questions submitted by the solicitor for the Board of Trade.
The Court concluded that the master had unwisely and unnecessarily chosen a narrow and intricate channel encumbered on both sides by rocks when he might just as well have gone through the adjacent Broad Sound. But having chosen Jack's Sound, a safe and proper course was not steered, and so the vessel stranded on a part of the patch
called the Bitches. The master on the bridge totally neglected the use of the lead, which was unjustifiable. The vessel was not managed with proper and seamanlike care. The vessel cost the owners 7,350 pounds in 1882, since which time she had been supplied with new engines and boilers, and re-classed at a cost of 3,400 pounds. In reply to the question
as to what was the value of the vessel when she left on her last voyage, the Court replied that the cost of a new steamer of the class and dimensions of the Tynedale at the present time would probably be about 6,000 pounds; then taking into consideration that the Tynedale was 19 years old, her market value when she left upon her last voyage would be considerably less.
With reference to the question of insurance, the managing owner had declined to answer any questions. As to dealing with certificates, the Court found the master alone in default, and suspended his certificate for eight calendar months from date.
In reply to an application, the Court assented to the request that in the meantime Captain Jones be recommended a mate's certificate.

Source: Cambrian, 15 April 1887, Page 7

N.B. On the Casebook website it is stated:

"Elizabeth Stride's lover at the time of her death, he worked as a waterside labourer and had been living at 36 Devonshire Street, Commercial Road.
His knowledge of her (Stride's) background was not dissimilar to that stated by Charles Preston, including the false tale of John Stride's death on the Princess Alice."

Also, I would add that with his knowledge of the Board of Trade insurance scams, the Princess Alice disaster and the Jack's Sound disaster, this makes him a perfect choice of suspect for the Powers that Be.

When Stride left Kidney,they had been living several doors from Mary Kelly, at 33 Dorset Street.

Stride then moved back to 32 Flower and Dean,very close to Eddowes.

In fact the last CV3 all seemed to shake their partners,like they had an uncashed Lotto ticket.