Crew’s demand delays sailing

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32677, 5 August 1971, Page 14

Crew’s demand delays sailing

The Union Steam Ship Company’s intercolonial motor-vessel Kaitoke, of 3551 tons, which was expected to leave Lyttelton for Dunedin last evening, has been delayed by its crew’s demand for hard-lying compensation.

The Kaitoke, one of the company’s older vessels, was built in Glasgow in 1949. The crew, according to the secretary of the Lyttelton branch of the Seamen’s Union (Mr J. O’Neill), will not leave Lyttelton until their demand is met.

[Hard-lying is a nautical term for difficult living conditions.] The crew are asking for one paid day off for every week they serve in the vessel. Another Union Steam Ship Company vessel, the 3528-ton Kowhai, is also delayed at Lyttelton. The Kowhai, built in 1952, recently had a long routine survey and overhaul at Lyttelton. She was to have sailed for Tauranga to load export cargo for Australia last Monday, but has not been able to obtain a full crew. Last evening she was still short of two able

seamen, but the prospects of getting them by today seemed better. It will not be known whether she will be affected by the Kaitoke dispute until she comes to sailing time. She, also, is an older class of vessel. Beyond confirming that the Kaitoke had been delayed, the Union Steam Ship Company had no comment to make.