Steward’s Attempt To Make Raft

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28532, 11 March 1958, Page 14

Steward’s Attempt To Make Raft

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, March 9.

A 19-year-old ship’s steward tried to make a journey on a raft made of a nine-foot ladder, a deck chair, and a mattress, strung together with hawser cable, a Transport Ministry inquiry has been told.

The inquiry, held on board the 8659-ton British liner Taranaki in the Thames, confirmed an entry in the master’s log that the steward, Gordon Walker, of Eastbourne, Sussex, disappeared overboard last October.

The master, Captain G. W. Houchen, said that Walker had disappeared overboard on the raft when the ship was nine miles out of Balboa, Panama, outward bound for New Zealand.

The day the ship left Balboa, Walker had run up to him crying and obviously suffering from the effects of alcohol, the captain added.

He had been reported missing three hours later. The ship, two American aircraft, and a helicopter had made a seven-hour search for him without success.

First Electrician S. B. Presslie said he had seen Walker standing at the ship’s stern with the raft. “He was rambling on about racing on rafts at Mission Bay, Auckland.”