DISPUTE OVER LIFEBOAT

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28629, 4 July 1958, Page 9

DISPUTE OVER LIFEBOAT

Crew Refuse To Sail N.Z. Ship (Rec. 10 p.m.) SYDNEY, July 3. The crew of a New Zealand cargo ship now in Sydney has refused to take her to sea. They claim the ship is not seaworthy because one of the two lifeboats is out of action.

The ship is the Waipori, which arrived in Sydney last Monday from Port Kembla on the southern New South Wales coast to shelter from the cyclone. The crew claims that as the Waipori was coming into Sydney Harbour the davits holding one of the life-boats collapsed. The lifeboat was lowered on to a hatch cover on the deck and tied down. A Seamen’s Union delegate said the lifeboat had stayed there yesterday when the master ordered the ship to sea after it had been passed by the navigation authorities.

A spokesman for the Union Steam Ship Company, owners of the Waipori, said today the lifeboat had been housed on deck under the direction of the Navigation Department. “The damaged davits were taken ashore for repair when the freighter berthed. Before the repairs were completed the weather cleared and the Harbourmaster at Port Kembla directed the freighter to return.

The company had gone to the Navigation Depatment and told thm what had happened. The Department had said to house the lifeboat on deck and if it passed inspection the ship could leave. “That is exactly what happened. The men are leaving themselves open to disciplinary action for disobeying the ship’s master,” the spokesman said.