SHIPOWNER SENT TO GAOL

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 84, 7 January 1928, Page 24

SHIPOWNER SENT TO GAOL

OVERLOADING HIS VESSEL “FALSE TO YOUR GREAT TRUST” A Cardiff fillipowner, Watkiu Janies Williams (46), who was indicted at Cardiff Assizes for having been a party to sending the British steamships Eastway and Tideway to sea in an uuseaworthy condition, was found guilty. Thera were thirteen counts in Hie indictment, one relating to the foundering of the Bastway with the loss of 23 lives in a hurricane off the Bermudas, and the other counts to twelve different voyages by the Tideway, still afloat, all from foreign ports. Williams was convicted on all twelve counts and sentenced to twelve months in the second division, and ordered to pay the costs of the prosecution. The Attorney General (Sir Douglas Hogg), leading the case for the Crown, had alleged "persistent overloading from foreign ports." The hearing of the evidence occupied five full days. Last Words of Defence. In Ins speech for the defence Air. G, P. Langton, K.C., said: "The. Eastway met a hurricane of unprecedented violence. She was sunk by the hurricane and by nothing else. Captain Vanstone, the competent and gallant master that he was, tried to ‘cut across the face of the hurricane.' He was right. The ship weathered the gale during the day with the hurricane striking her. and would have come through all right but fqr the unlucky port bunker hatch which had been stove in by an exceptionally heavy sea." The ship, he contended, could not have been overloaded as she answered hel holm with precision. "This case has an aspect of very serious public importance,” said the Attorney General. "The lives of those to-day sailing the seas may well depend on the verdict, if the verdict be such as to. encourage others to continue such practices as the prosecution allege resulted in the loss of the Eastway. If people choose to gamble with the lives of sailors to put money into their pockets, I hope the jury will say that that is a practice which cannot be carried on with impunity.” The Summing-up. Mr. Justice Wright, summing up. said that the bad hurricane undoubtedly assailed the Eastway. There was evidence that the area through which she had to go on her voyage was liable to be swept by hurricanes at that time of the year, " "and one of the questions fqr the jury was whether the ship if overloaded to the extent alleged by the prosecution was seaworthy—that was, reasonably fit to meet the perils which she might fairly be expected to encounter in that area. “I am not 'quite .sure whether some of the witnesses do not think it a laudabh thing to overload ships," Mr Justice ; Wright said, observing that the .whole object of the fixing of the loadline 'by the Board of Trade was to make a ship as safe as was reasonable, and. proper. "Did the prisoner use all means to see that the ship was seaworthy?” asked Mr. Justice Wright. "He is a manager appointed under the. Merchant Shipping Act, and a manager under that Act has been described as part of the machinery designed for the protection of lives and property at sea. All he says 'is that he told his marine superintendent, Captain Mead, to tell the captains'of the ships that they must not overload. Captain Mead has not been called as a witness.” - ... Discussing the seriousness of the case if it should be found that the Easfway was overloaded. Air. Justice Alright said : "It is a very painful task to liaye to sit in judgment on a shipowner in this citv. having regard to his position in the business world, but you have to bear in mind that the issues go.tar beyond the personal convenience of any particular citizen. "There has been for the past haltcenturv in this country legislation which has the object of securing as far as possible that the' lives of those who go to-sea in ships should not be needlessly and wickedly endangered. It y°n are satisfied that the ■ lives -‘of those sailors on the Eastway were endangered and that the' prisoner did not take' all reasonable steps to prevent that, then it is vour duty to give effect to that view, because otherwise penpie like-mind-ed might be encouraged to leopardise the lives of other men.” After dealing with the Tideway case Mr. Justice Wngnt said: You are charged with a duty of the grare.it importance to the shipping community find those that go down to the sea m sTn’ns. I am quite satisfied that the standard of ship’? management in tins city is very high. . and. if you find there has been a departure from that standard you will give expression to that in your verdict. “False to Your Duty.” After the jury had returned their verdict of guilty, tlie Judge, addressmg the prisoner, gaidr—"You have held a position of great trust an<l responsibility as a shipowner in this city. ATou have been appointed under Shipping manager of the two ships in Tn that position it was your duty .to see that all proper precautions were taken for the protection of lives and nr Xe^thin B g ea ha S been said that could have been said on your behalf. The jury have found that von. have been fa se to the trust reposed in you, and laise to the duty which was yours. I cannot do other than regard the offence of which you have been convicted as one which is serious. In this the Legislature has for half a century or so taken steps to make it a Prnnnr part of its policy that ships should he made, as far as they can >». seaworthy, and that unscrupulous shipowners should not be allowed to overload their ships and risk the lives of those on board. "You have been found guilty of committing that crime in a number or cases _ip thirteen separate cases, in fact A« to the first of those, the ship Eastwav was lost, and the jury,may well have thought that if she had not been overladen, ns she was, she would have weathered the storm as, I have no doubt, other ( ships In that region in fact did. You have not been prosecuted for causing the ship to be lost, but you have been prosecuted, ana vou are convicted, however, of not doing vnur duty so as to see that all rea J°P’ able steps were taken for ,fh® ‘Q-T of vour ship The sentence is that vou be kept in prison in the second division for twelve months, and pay to® costs of the prosecution. . . Air. Watkin Williams was immediately led below.