THE RONA VERDICT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 167, 17 July 1922, Page 4

THE RONA VERDICT.

The mis-hap to the Rona was one o; the accidents that show that there is no limit to the hazards of the sea. Do everything you can to make navigation safe, and now and again the human factor will nullify your work. There can have been few cases in the records of strandings s o strange as that of the Rona. Its very simplicity »a- baliiing. Horo was no case of a seaman overrunning his distance in thh-k weather, i'" going too fast in a fog, o' mistaking headlands, or moving with the carelessness iDorn of familiarity in dangprouwafcers. There was only one danger in front of the vessel, and that danger was lighted; the night w;i- dear; and the officer on the bridge warm experienced man who had sailed past the danger | many times. Yet the ship run un the I rock. Clearly this was no ordinary mi.— | hap. It can have been due only to mic of j those failures of judgment to which nt one time or another every man perhaps i> liaible. It i> a* if a tried mathematician, in the middle of a calculation, was suddenly afflicted with a partial paralyMs of the multiplying faculty, nnd without realUing bis mistake, proceeded on j the assumption that twice live wore I eight. Under the eirc-um.-tarice- it ',- mi- | possible to withhold sympathy from the officer .cm.-enifd. The Court had a difficult mid unpleasant la-k in dculinfr I with him. nnd the si\ month*" suspension i i:f hi- i-ertitii-alv and iv ordor I that he pay cn-M« may nut hi , the heavii-<l part of hi- puui-hment. There I will, however. b:> -lii: more sympathy for the mns-tcr of the vp-iwrf. and we should >.iy the Court's decision in rc-sp..<-t to him will not 'be w.-eived wiHi anything like unanimity in .-hipping cir- I des. The '■■mailer portion nf Hip blanir ! U held io 1-c his. in thai be did m.i j make i; clear Wore leaving the bridge that the chief ollV-er was in charge. Surely, however, nothing was more ob | vious thiui that tho -hip should be so navigated a< not to hit the lif , tpil rock. and the master o.tld not he cxpeclnd t<. i-oiwidpr the po-ibility ,r -u.-h v ra-ualty happenins- !1,, know his chief ulVi i-r wa- just a~ experiem-eil as him-1 soli", and that he had navigated fro- I i|uently in tiioso waters. Thai while | that officer was «>n the bridge he >vns in charge would under such circunistances be taken 'by a master as a matter of course. The Court -peaks of "the L'xaciijig care ; tl all times required of a j master." Pushed to it- logical conclusion i thi- might mean that olf v coast a master should never leave the bridge. One of the witnesses in the cife, a coastal master of long experience, declared that if a master could not trust j a chief officer in that particular locality I he could nc-t tru-t bin: anywhere. The I effect of the finding as it affects Captain Wallia will be to add very materially to the anxieties of masters, who already, hnve a heavy load to cany. | - ' _ I '■ i