MISCHIEF ON GERMAN BARQUE

Press, Issue 22599, 3 January 1939, Page 10

MISCHIEF ON GERMAN BARQUE

MAN FINED AT NEW PLYMOUTH

(I'RKSS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.)

NEW PLYMOUTH, January 2

A midnight adventure on the German barque Kommodore Johnsen in search of a souvenir led to the appearance of Wilfred Sefton Emmett, aged 27, of Wanganui, in the New Plymouth Magistrate’s Court to-day. Cutting •adrift a wind vane at the top of the mizzen mast cost him a £1 fine for mischief, and he was ordered to pay the North German Lloyd Shipping Company £2, the cost of the damage. For being found drunk on the wharf he was convicted and discharged. A noise at the top of the mast at midnight drew the attention of officers, according to evidence, and a man was sent aloft. Emmett refused to descend until the police were called. The master. Captain Clausen, was concerned because he feared it would be thought that his cadets were responsible for the disturbance. “1 did not intend any insult,” said Emmett to the Bench;, “but merely wanted a souvenior. "If it had not been the festive season, the penalty would have been greater,” said Mr W, C, Wpston, J.P. “He should have been doubly careful, because it was a visiting German ship, that we are all pleased to have here,”