RANGI WRECK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 48, 26 February 1937, Page 9

RANGI WRECK.

SCOW'S CONDITION.

EXPERTS' EVIDENCE.

ALTERATION TO LOADLINE.

RECOVERY OF BOLTS. The question of recovering the perpendicular fastenings from the hull of the wrecked scow Rangi for examination was revived by Mr. X. A. Foden, when the Marine Court of Inquiry into' * ;ie tragedy was about to adjourn yesterday afternoon. Alter discussion, during which it was suggested that Departmental otliceis Mic.uld submit a report on the fastenings direct to the Minister of Marine, the magistrate decided that the fastenings should be recovered as exhibits for The information of the personnel of the Court after tlie inquiry concludes.

Ihe Court was adjourned until this atternoon, when it is hoped to complete the hearing of evidence.

Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., is presiding, and the assessors are Captains G. Sorensen and I. R. G. Jenson and Mr. T. F. Anderson. The proceedings are being conducted on behalf of the Marine Department by Mr. N. A. Foden, of Wellington. The owners of the scow, tl-e Levland-O Brien Timber Company, Ltd are represented by Mr. Moody, the' Scow Owners' Association by Mr. Goulding, and the Federated Seamen's Union of New Zealand by the president, Mr. F. P. Walsh.

Continuing his evidence vesterdav afternoon, John William Townsend senior surveyor of ships at Auckland! said, in answer to Mr. Walsh, that the Marine • Department had no special rules for the surveving of wooden ships, but they followed" the rules of Lloyd's and the British Board of Trade. A surveyor examined a vessel inside and out, and inspected everything he could see.

Asked by Mr. Walsh whether the method of survey could be improved, witness replied, "Yes, if the surveyor carried an X-ray machine."

Asking witness to give more informative answers, Mr. Walsh said that he would submit that the loss of the Rangi was directly due to the corroded condition of her fastenings, which broke under the stress of weather, allowing the hull to open up, and that the corro" sion of the fastenings should have been seen by the Department's surveyors and their replacement ordered.

After quoting the British Board of Trade rules for the surveying of wooden ships, Mr. Walsh asked witness whether these rules were followed in the survey of the Rangi.

4< they were not," stated witness. "Many of the fasteninsrs in a scow are inaccessible. The scow is a tvpe of its own."

When Air. VV alsh asked witness whether he could explain why, within a space of nine months, four scows under the Department's jurisdiction had sunk, the magistrate disallowed the question. Mr. Walsh told the magistrate that he hoped to show the Court that engineer surveyors lacked the necessary knowledge for the survey of wooden ships. Tug Sent to Rescue. Captain Frederick Stanley Wainhouse, who was acting-harbourmaster on the date of the tragedy, said that he received first news of the Ran<ri being in difficulties at 9.15 p.m. He communicated with Mr. Leyland, a member of the firm of owners, who asked him to do everything possible. The Te Awhina, which was at that time busy with an overseas vessel, was dispatched at 10.20 p.m., having had to wait until another fireman was engaged.

"The weather that night was pretty rotten, wasn't it?" asked Mr. Moody. * "You flatter it," was Captain Wainhouse's reply. Describing his search for the Ran?i, which he expected to find anchored close to Fakino. Captain J. J. Probert said that he twice tried to round the northern end of the island, in order to circle it, but was unable to do so untiF daybreak. The information he had received before leaving Auckland did not suggest that the vessel was in any immediate danger. Equipment o£ Boat. Captain W. J. Keane, a nautical surveyor of ships in the employ of the Marine Department, gave evidence of having inspected the hull of the Rangi at Campbell's Bay, in company with Captain A. Davies. The latter, also a Marine Department surveyor, when called, described the Departmental deck survey of the vessel last October. The locker containing the flares and lifesaving equipment was he stated, securely lashed to the deck, while the lifeboat and its gear fulfilled the requirements of the regulations. He could offer no explanation why the proper equipment was not in the dinghy when the scow foundered. The onus was on the master to see that the equipment was in its proper place.

Captain Davies said that there was no reason why the boats carried by vessels over 100 feet long should not be equipped ■with flotation tanks.

Witness said, in answer to Mr. Walsh, that in 1925, the date of the earliest record available, the Rangi's freeboard was Sin. She then had a home trade certificate. In 1932 the load-line was raised, reducing the freeboard to 4i inches, and the vessel was given a certificate entitling her to trade anywhere between North Cape and Opotiki. This alteration would probably permit the Rangi to carry from 25 tons to 30 tons more cargo than before. To the best of witness' knowledge, the vessel was not subject to any special survey when the freeboard was reduced. Departmental Circular. Quoting the Shipping and Seamen's Act, Mr. Walsh asked witness whether the alterations to the Rangi's loadline were made in accordance with the Act. "Xo. They were made in accordance with a circular issued by the Department," stated Captain Davies. Asked by Mr. Walsh by what right Departmental circulars over-rode the Act. Captain Davies said that he was unable to answer that question. The protest of Mr. Foden that it was unfair to ask witness a question on Departmental policy was upheld by the magistrate. Captain Davies said that the Board of Trade regulations for the survey of wooden ships were not applicable to scows. The engineering surveyoi who examined the scow in October, Horace Stanley Baldwin, said that the Rangi's perpendicular fastenings were not examined. It was not the practice to do so. He considered that the vessel wafe in "noil condition and did not attribute the wreck to the breaking of "knees" or fastenings.