ERROR OF JUDGMENT BY CAPTAIN

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 77, 23 December 1939, Page 14

ERROR OF JUDGMENT BY CAPTAIN

Loss Of Waikouaiti

COURT RETURNS CLEAN CERTIFICATE

A finding that the muster, Captain JBruce, had committed an error of judgment, was returned by the Court of Inquiry which heard evidence concerning the loss of the Union Steam Ship Company’s intercolonial freighter Waikouaiti, which was wrecked in fog in Foveaux Strait on November 28. The Court, after giving its decision yesterday, returned a clean certificate to Captain Bruce. Air. A. M. Goulding, S .M., presided over the Court of Inquiry, and Captain L. C. H. Worrall and Captain J. Mawson appeared as nautical assessors. The Court found as follows: —

1. The cause of the casualty was that after 8 p.m. on November 28 the master of the ship proceeded on his course at a normal speed of 9J to 10 knots when fog and weather conditions rendered Dog Island light and all neighbouring landmarks invisible; and when the vessel should not have proceeded. 2. In so proceeding on this course the master committed an error of judgment. Summing up the magistrate said that from 2 p.m. on the afternoon of November 28 until 8 p.m., the Waikouaiti had steered upon a course which brought her to a point 2J miles off Bluff Hill and 5J miles west of Dog Island light. This light, in normal weather, was visible for a distance of 18 miles. The course from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. was charted by bearings from time to time, the latest being at 7.56 p.m., when the position of the vessel was fixed as stated. Between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. the course showed no deviation, but log readings between 4 p.m. and 1 8 p.m. showed that the vessel was making against an ebb tide. The tide tables would suggest that after 8 o’clock the ebb was still running, and the master expected that if there was any set it would tend to take the ship south of the course he had set.

. At 8 p.m. the Dog Island light and Bluff Hill were invisible because of fog. Even the rocks along the shore were invisible, but the sea was calm. The master was in charge of the vessel. He remained on the same course between 7.56 p.m. and 8.15 p.m., when he ordered a change of course of l-l points southward. There was no alteration in speed. The Dog Island light was not seen until after the stranding, the point of which was later fixed at somewhat less than half a mile from the light and almost due west of it. Tides Near Bluff. In finding that there was an error of judgment in proceeding on the course after 8 p.m., the Court drew attention to the warning in the Nautical Almanac concerning tides around Bluff Harbour. That warning stated that the tides had been found to vary occasionally by three-quarters of an hour on the tabulated predictions, and that there was a large body of water behind Bluff Harbour which caused the tides to set very strongly in and out of tlie harbour. There was no evidence 'from which the Court could properly infer that the ship was set off her course by an unusual tide set, but there may have been such a set, and if there was, it occurred after the position was fixed at 7.56 p.m., and in the distance of 5J miles from there to the place of stranding. The warning in the Nautical Almanac seemed to be an additional reason why extra precautions were necessary, and rendered it still more necessary not to proceed. The master was no stranger to the locality, and should have been aware of the warning. In proceeding as he did the master steered a course to take him south of Dog Island. The Court thought lie took a risk which was not warranted, but did not think that he was guilty of any wrongful act in the management of the ship. After the disaster he took all proper steps. In the circiimstances the Court returned a clean certificate to the master, whose long and unblemished record extended for nearly twenty years, and it did not charge him costs. The magistrate added that the 7.56 fix was the result of a bearing taken in failing light, and one of the points was Mount Angleni, some 20 miles away. The Court accepted the evidence of the ship’s position then, but drew attention to the possibility of error in such circumstances, though error had not been established.