BOGUS SOS CALLS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 157, 31 March 1937, Page 13

BOGUS SOS CALLS

No Bar Applies Ashore Despite the provisions of the British Merchant Shipping Act, and Hie formidable list of police offences “within the meaning of the Act,” there does not appear to be any bar against flashing bogus SOS signals—provided the sender is on land which is not enclosed, and provided he is not a “suspected person or reputed thief.” This was ascertained in Wellington yesterday when inquiries were made respecting the exploit of a 16-year-old boy in Waiwera, near Auckland, who, last Saturday night during the height of a storm, flashed SOS signals by a torch from the end of the long wharf. He succeeded in thoroughly alarming about SO guests at the Waiwera Hotel, and causing much anxiety among officials of the Auckland Harbour Board, lie was responsible also for not a little expense ami trouble in getting ready for immediate dispatch one of the harbour board’s powerful tugs. There is no passage in the British Merchant Shipping Act which applies to anyone ashore sending false signals. All the law refers to is the misuse of the SOS call by any master of a vessel at sea, who is made responsible also for the actions of his crew in this respect.

A search through the Police Offences Act reveals a passage which could possibly be made to apply in such cases. Section 52, 1 (j) reads as follows:— “. . . Who, being a suspected person or reputed thief, frequents any port or harbour, river, canal, navigable stream, dock or basin, or any quay or wharf, or any other public place, or any house, building, or other place adjacent to any such port or harbour, river, canal, navigable stream, dock or basin, or quay or wharf, with a felonious intent.”