COLLISION AT SEA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 142, 15 December 1908, Page 7

COLLISION AT SEA.

» CROSS ACTIONS FOR COMPENSATION. DECISION OF THE COURT. Bj Telegraph.— Press Association.— Copyright. SYDNEY, 14th December. Tho Vice-Admiralty Court to-day gave judgment in the cross actions brought by the A.U.S.N. Company and Messrs. Fenwick and Sons, the respective owners o£ the steamer Suva and the tug Hero, in connection with the collision on 28th August. Each side claimed £4000 damages. The court found that the Hero was solely to blame for the collision, and ordered an assessment of tho damage suffered by the Suva, this, with the costs of the action, to be paid by tho owners of the Hero. Tho Suva was leaving port for Newcastle, to load bunker coal, when she met the tug Ilero, inward-bound, and before anything could be done to stave off disaster the vessels were foul of one another. Both were badly damaged. The Suva was struck on the port side; a hole six feet long and eighteen inches in depth being cut just below the deck level, while several plates below 'the waler-line were damaged and the rivets started. The steamer's pumps kept the heavy inrush of water down till she reached the wharf. The stern of tho Hero was broken, the boiler shifted from its position, and all the steam-pipe connections were carried away. Tho fore part of the tug was flooded, and she was complsloly disabled. Both vcsecls had to go into dock for. I'gpoirei