Trawler Skipper Punished

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30200, 3 August 1963, Page 11

Trawler Skipper Punished

(N.Z Press Association—-Copyright)

PERTH August 2

The “ice-box hero" of the trawler Nor 6 John Drinan was found guilty this afternoon of incompetence and misconduct in the navigation and management of the vessel A Marine Court of Inquiry at Fremantle suspended his master’s certificate for 12 months

Dnnan’s prawning trawler was wrecked on the Wes' Australia coast on April 25 Three crew members lost their lives

Drman was acclaimed after he drifted on sections of an ice-box for 17 days before being rescued. The Court of Inquiry found that from Gera Id ton 313 miles north of Perth. Drinan had plotted a course of 340 degrees on the compass This would have brought the vessel to hit land slightly north of where it was wrecked. Drinan was criticised in the Court as a reckless man who

disregarded the safety of his crew

He blamed his lost crew for the disaster, claiming they failed to carry out his ins‘.ruction to wake him at 5 a m o. the day of the sinking The Court was told of a suggestion by a police sergeant skin-diver that the Nor 6 was heeding south—not north—when it ran on to a rock ledge under overhanging 150-foot cliffs, and sank The Nor 6 left Fremantle for the passage to Carnarvon about noon on Anri) 23 under Drinan’s command It was the boat's maiden voyage Drinan said in evidence to the inquiry that "if my instructions had been carried out. I don't think this would have happened They didn’t wake me or they would be here today The Court, by its terms of reference has been inquiring into the loss of the trawler and into a charge that Drinan as its skipper was incompetent to a degree of misconduct.