TOO FINE A COURSE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 127, 1 June 1938, Page 7

TOO FINE A COURSE.

Captain of Port Saint John Censured. OFFICER'S CARELESSNESS. SYDNEY, May 31. A Marine Court of Inquiry was held to-day into tlie stranding of the Port Line motor ship Port Saint John at Lady Elliot Island, off (he Queensland coast. She was refloated on May 22. The third officer. Kobert Xicholl. who was at the wheel at the time of the stranding, pave evidence that Captain William Lynd had allowed a three degrees set against the vessel for a southerly current, which in ordinary circumstances should have kept th£ ship one mile and three-quarters off the | reef, but no allowance had been made i for the flood tide, which happened to be very strong and grew stronger as the | ship neared the island. The Court found that the stranding was due to the setting of too fine a course without making proper allowance for tidal influences, resulting in the vessel's being one mile and a half of! her course when Captain Lynd went 011 the bridge and accepted the third officer's estimate of the position of the ship. The captain's action merited censure. The Court also found that the third officer was guilty of careless navigation in not taking sufficient bearings to verify the ship's position. I Captain W. L. Lynd, master of the I Port Saint John 011 her maiden i voyage, is in his first permanent 1 command. He was formerly relieving : captain of the Port Denison and later 5 chief officer of the motor ship Port Townsville.