A SHIPPING CASE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 242, 11 October 1902, Page 6

A SHIPPING CASE.

CAPTAIN OF THE MERCEDES FINED.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, this day.

Shipmasters would do well to study the New Zealand shipping" laws, otherwise tliey may have the saone costly experience as Captain Carter, of the Admiralty chartered collier Mercedes. He was charged in the Magistrate's Court yesterday with a breach oi the regulations by leaving behind in Hong Kong four members of his crew without previously obtaining a certificate iv writing endorsed on the agreement between him and men of some superintendent of mercantile marine or other officer, stating the fact of such leaving behind and cause thereof. It was alleged by the prosecution that when the Mercedes was last in New Zealand she shipped a European crew, including four men named in the information. Their wages were fixed at £7 per month. When the vessel got to Hong Kong the four men asked tbe captain for money and. he gave each of them five dollars. The vessel left that port without the men, who wound themselves with only a few shillings in their pockets. Fortunately they were able to get a passage back by another vessel, and they arrived in Wellington via Sydney yesterday, just in time to catch the Mercedes at tliLs port. On the Mercedes' articles the four men appeared as deserters, but the captain now agreed to pay them" their wages up to the time they returned to Wellington. Captain Carter, in his defence, said that when he was at Hong Kong he shipped a Chinese crew to replace the Europeans, whom he intended to discharge in New Zealand. He did not purposely leave the four men in Hong Kong. Some of the men were given leave at that port, and the others were on shore without leave. He told the men whom lie had allowed on shore that the vessel was about to leave, and it was their fault that they had missed the ship. Before leaving Hong Kong he reported by letter to the port authorities that four men had not joined. He left Hong Kong when he did because he was afraid that if he staj'ed for the men the owners of the ship might lose their charter, or a portion of their charter, money.

Captain Smith, Superintendent of Mercantile Marine, explained that the cost to the Crown of bringing the four men from Hong Kong was three shillings a day per man.

The evidence of two of the four was that the captain, who had given them some money, was asked by them when the ship would leave for New Zealand, and he replied that he could not say just then. The vessel cleared out without them and they bad to apply to port authorities for assistance to live. A Chinese crew lif/J been shipped during the time they were on leave.

.Mr Haselden, Stipendiary Magistrate, said he had no doubt the men were left behind through their own folly. He could not hold that the captain could not have got a certificate at Hong Kong as to the leaving of the men behind. If the captain's excuse was accepted then every master of a vessel could go to sea and say that he could not get a certificate. As Captain Carter had undertaken to reimburse the Crown for the expenses in bringing the men back, and also to pay their wages, the fine would not be so large as it would otherwise be, but still it would be large enough to make it a warning to captains not to leave men behind. The fine would be £25 and costs (£3 17/). His Worship added that he did not believe that the captain had acted as he had done in order to make money.