MORE WRECKAGE FOUND.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13250, 19 October 1908, Page 7

MORE WRECKAGE FOUND.

THE MISSING LOCH LOMOND

A Press Association telegram, from Auckland states that a. piece of American pine, which had! evidently been used as a' carpenter's bench on tomo vessel, was found at Oruawharo Bay, in Great Barrier Island, covered with baiiraelcs. It liad apparently been long I adrift. Wreckage bas been found on th- | west coast thirty miles south of Cape i Maria Van Diomen, consisting of a spur j about eleven inches in diameter and I fifty feet long, also part of a bow and I scroll all painted red hematite, and | parts of a bow painted white, out no name couid *be found. Pietes of doors wero also found with a white centre and small tlag divided vertically, one half like the Lnion Jack, and tho other dark blue. A few days ago a life-buoy, with tho name Loch Lomond painted on it, was tound near the Great Barrier Island, and a skylight and portion of a ship's spar were quite recently washed ashore at the Chatham lslauds. Although none of the wreckage, with the exception of tho buoy, has been identified, tho belief is hokl by seafaring people that tho flotsam may be taken as an indication that the barque Loch Lomond met with disaster somewhere to the northward of New Zealand. Laden with 1700 tons of coal, tho Loch Lomond, which was purchased! in Melbourne some months ago by tho Union S.S. Co., left Newcastle for Lyttelton on July 15th, and lias not since been heard of. Her name has been added to the long list ot" "missing" ships. Many faithfully-built and wellequipped sailing vessels, after., traarag in all parts of tho world without misfh'ap, have left' Newcastle coal-laden and have never been reported again. Tho list of sailing ships outward' bound from Newcastle which have been posted as missing is a long ono, and tho deathroll is extensive. Tho startling disclosure has now been made, says the "Sydney Morning Herald," that tho Newcastle coal-trim-mers, in order to facilitate their work, have in somo cases removed l the whole of tho shifting board's placed in tho holds of tlio ships to prevent any possibility of tho vessels listing through the moving of tho ooal cargoes in heavy weather. How often this haa been done will, of course, never be known; but the insuranco companies hay© been successful, within the past few months, in discovering instances in which the shifting boards had undoubtedly been tampered with. It is a remarkable fact that, until tlio last few weeks, no steps liad ever been taken by tho Government to protect th© lives of sailors by insisting on these of shifting boards. In the shipping world, however, ther© is a greater power than the Government to be counted with, and that is the combination of insuranco companies. Underwriters have always mado it a stipulation that before coal cargoes will be "covered," shifting boards must be fixed under the supervision and to the • entire satisfaction of tho surveyors employed' by tho companies _or their association. It now transpires, however, that after the departure of the surveyors, tho coal-trimmers - have, on somo occasions, wilfully renioved' tho bolts and displaced tho shifting boardß, which necessarily somewhat hamper their operations. Urgent, representations on th© subject have from time to time been mado by the insuranco companies to tho .New South Wales Government, with the result that th© Department of Navigation is now en- ; forcing ' tho. following regulation:— "Th© masters of all British '-ailing vessels of over 700 tons-register, leading coal at any port withirr th© jurisdiction', _liall see that the coal is properly trimmed and protected from shifting by shifting boards of not less than two dnches in thickness, to be fitted, from main deck to 'tween dock, and, should 'tween decks be laid, for a depth of four, feet in lower, hold from 'tween decks downward. Any person committing a breach of this regulation, shall bo liable to a penalty not exoeedring. fifty pounds." An enquiry will, doubtless, be held into th© cause of the loss of th© Ixich. Lomond 1 , and! in tho meantime it ia only a matter of conjecture.