FLYING FISTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 270, 14 November 1928, Page 8

FLYING FISTS.

BELLICOSE MARINERS.

ROW OK PORT DARWX*.

ASSAULT ON THE CAPTAI»*.

POLICE IN PACIFIC ROLE.

Fists were flying about on the Home steamer Port Darwin which is berthed at the Queen's wharf, and unlucky recipients of bfows saw stars and all sorts of things. The skipper of the boat - received a blow in the face as a souvenir of the visit of his vessel to Auckland, and some of the apprentices— the young gentlemen who are being trained on the liner as officers—hid quite a torrid time. Yesterday afternoon fifteen members of the crew of the Port Darwin appeared at the Police Court on a charge of digobeying a command to work a hot bunker containing coal, when the steamer was on the way up the "west coast to Auckland, with the upshot that the trimmers in the party were ordered to forfeit two days' pay while their seamen companions escaped with the lose of one day's pay. The aggrieved party held a bit of a tangi after the court case, and they went back to the boat feeling that life in the British mercantile marine was not all that it was cracked up to be. Apparently some of the crew slept on their grievance, and they were in no happier frame of mind when they woke up this morning. Some of them went ashore this morning and between the excitement of election day and sampling , the manifold attractions of Auckland beer they were just about in the right frame of mind to fight a shadow after clambering up the gangway on to the ship's deck. When the trouble started an S.O.S. call was sent for the police and a strong posse soon arrived. By this time the matter had developed into the argumentative stage and a big crowd gathered to watch members of the crew in bellicose mood parading the deck. One young fireman leaned over the rail for'ard and addressed a big audience. He spoke slightingly of the rates of pay which ruled for the black squad that tended the ship's fires and, after declaring that he was an Irishman, called the world to witness that many great men had come from that country. A Trying Ordeal. Another fireman began a speech from the top deck, but, unlike political candidates, he evidently found that oratory was a somewhat trying ordeal, and hastened to refresh himself with the contents of a bottle bearing -a popular label. On the off chance that the boat had not been properly christened he broke the bottle on the rail.

For once the police found themselves in the role of pacifists. Round them gathered a group of angry trimmers, * couple of men being stripped to the waist and bearing many outward manifestations of the sooty job they had below. The police handled the situaA tion with tact and by degrees the more belligerent members of the crew were induced to take a, calmer view of the situation. When Press cameramen lined up, the firemen formed into a hilarious group and one of them, to show that there was no ill-feeling, an arm lovingly round a* policemaWs heck. Meanwhile the ship's officers discreetly held aloof with a calm and detached air which suggested that a mild riot was quite an everyday occurrence in the mercantile marine. The ship's cooks placidly carried on, obviously with a full realisation that there would be common agreement on at least one subject when tea time came.

The start of the trouble cane when the firemen attacked the chief engineer (Mr. J. Robertson)-, and the master . (Captain I. W. R. Sawbridge), accompanied by officers and apprentices, went to the rescue. For several minutes it was a regular donnybrook.. Captain Sawbridge received several superficial cuts about the face and had his nose bent a bit out of plumb. Several of the apprentices got bruised faces, as a couple of the firemen carried a punch of the Heeney kind. Captain Hollis, shore superintendent of the line, was also involved, and had the misfortune to stop a round-arm swing which broke his false teeth. He was later taken to the Auckland Hospital to get fragments extracted from his throat. The firemen also had • share of the hard knocks.

The captain did not want any of the men arrested, and was hopeful of an amicable settlement of the trouble on board. The ship is to sail at 4 to-day for Gisborne, Napier and Wellington to continue homeward loading, but there were doubts that she would get away at that time.

While the fight was on the watersiders engaged on board went calmly on with their work in the passive role of spectators.

The chief engineer refutes a statement made in the Court case yesterday that the coal was hot in the cross-bunker when the vessel first reached Auckland. This allegation had ' caused misunderstanding with the crew. The chief engineer added that the first intimation he had that the coal was hot was when the matter was reported by the second engineer the day the steamer left Timaru for New Plymouth on her return voyage to Auckland.