THE TARARUA DISASTER.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3099, 3 June 1881, Page 3

THE TARARUA DISASTER.

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT.

[by telegraph.] Dunedin, June 3

The judgment in the Tararua inquiry was given to-day. The Court found that the wreck and loss of life was principally caused through the failure of Captain Garrard to ascertain at 4 a.m. on April 29 the correct position of the ship, when the simple use of the lead would have told the distance off the shore. That the course which the Tararua was steered from 1.30 to 4 a.m., assuming the compasses were magnetically correct, was an unsafe course, aud therefore improper, especially as a heavy swell and ebb tide tended to set the vessel in shore. That at 4.25., when the second officer first called the captain's attention to tbe noise of breakers, the vessel was off Slope Point, and in dangerous proximity thereto, but the captain believed her to be off Waipapa Point. That, although it is to be regretted that the second officer did not exercise the power which he had to stop the engines if he found the ship in imminent danger when for the second time he fancied he heard breakers, we cannot come to the conclusion that his not doing so was a negligent omission ; it was reasonable for him to suppose that the captain had ascertained the position of the ship at four o'clock, and he might naturally be impressed with tbe idea that the hearing of the breakers could only be fancy, and took the action he did to report to the captain in terms of his orders; at the same time we are of opinion that the leaving of the bridge at any time by an officer in charge of the deck when a ship is under weigh is fraught with extreme danger, and that Captain Garrard's orders to his officers to call him personally were imprudent. That the immediate cause of the wreck and the loss of life was the negligent failure of the able seaman Weston to keep a proper look out. That after the vessel struck and filled the captain committed an error in judgment in not placing his passengers in the boats. The Court w.s of opinion that there were sufficient boats and life-buoys in the Tararua, but thought many lives would have been saved bad tbe life-belts been available for the passengers and crew. In reference to the management of the boats, they thought the loss of the first officer's boat might have been avoided by more skilful management, but although censuring Lindsay for his lack of skill they were not disposed to say that the casualty which resulted therefrom was caused by his wrongful act or default. They thought assistance should have been rendered from the Bluff or Invercargill when tbe intimation was first received of the accident, for no passenger vessel on a rock could be considered in other than a dangerous position. Astonishment was tbat the officers of the Tararua were ignorant of the deviations of the compass, but in view of the peculiar discipline on board tbe Court was not disposed to say what degree if any the ignorance was attributable to their own neglect.

The certificates of both officers were then returned.

In conclusion the Court made the following recommendations:—l. That a light is urgently required in the neighborhood of Waipapa Point. 2. That all the pa&senger vessels trading in New Zealand w?ters be compelled to carry life-belts for the maximum number of passengers and crew. 3. That a regulation be made compelling exercise in the management of boats at stated intervals.

Iv answer to a question 'the Court said that, as the captain had lost his life, there was no one against whom an order for costs could be made.