PENGUIN DISASTER.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 111, 12 May 1909, Page 4

PENGUIN DISASTER.

COMMENTS ON THE COURT'S DECISION. • i TO THE BDITOB Sir, — Now that the Appeal Court has given its decision in regard to Captain Nayjbrls position, I take it that I am quite' in order in penning this missive. Befqre,, going into the principal matter, I desire to congratulate and thank you for the very fair attitude your paper adopted all through when dealing with this painful subject. Mr.— Justice Cooper has, I have not" the slightest doubt, given his judgment in accordance with the evidence as- he has viewed it, and any person who was in the court at the time the case wan going* on could not but be struck with the. fair and kindly mariner in which he heard the case, both for and against. Irt regard to the assessors, I would like to say that I cannot understand for the 'life of me why they advised his Honour that there- was not an abnormal current in the Straits on the night of the t wreck. Take as an instance tho evidence- of the master of the Kaituna, which is supported by the vessel's logbook. At 11.7 p.m. on the 12th February Cape Campbell light bore west four miles distant; the course was then altered, and at 1.50 a.m. on 13th tho Brothers light was bearing W.^S. threa miles off. The distance between these two points is exactly 38 miles ; therefore, as I calculate it, a vessel running 38 miles in a space of 2hrs 43mins is covering the ground at a speed of /14.1 knots per- hour. The Kaituna steams from 9 to 9£ knots ; therefore, there must have been at least a 7-knot current, to have fojeed this bluff-bowed collie., along at an extra 4£ knots. There w^s an abundance of evidence which wenf; to prove there was an exceptionally strong tide -running through the Straits that nighfc, yet -these expert > advisers, who were not in the Straits tliat night, state emphatically that tho tidal flow was an ordinary one. It appears to me, sir, that the assessors on the case first of all decided that it was on Tom's Rock that the Penguin struck, and then stated that it was not possible under the circumstances for the vessel to have met the Kennedy at the position stated by Captain Vickerman. Most assuredly this is so, Mr. Editor, out the question is — Did she strike Tom's Rock ? My contention is that as the Kennedy passed the Penguin about three miles S.W. of Tom's Kock, it was quite impossible for her to have , struck it, for every revolution of the propeller would, aftex that time, take her further away from the rock. I think it was very wrong on the part of the court to discount the 'evidence of a worthy old shipmaster liko Captain Vickerman, who merely gave his evidence in the interests of justice. Had the court gone thoroughly into the matter, they would have seen that it was au impossibility for Captain Vickerman to have been with the Kennedy, anywhere , inside of the position he gave as having passed the Penguin at, for the following reason : When he altered his course 'from S.W. to N.W.£N., he xeckoned that he was steering for the Brothers light. He did not sight that light until he was within five miles of it. When he did sight it, it was bearing N.W.^N., which shows conclusively that he must have had the light on some bearing to the nor'ard of that (and considerably so) when he kept the vessel's head in that direction, unless the tide was ebbing instead of flowing The assessors advised the President of the court, also, that Captain Naylor was in fault in two respects. I'irst, when he found that his patent log was useless, it was his duty to have been exceedingly careful, and he failed in that duty. I maintain, in regard to this, that, as practical men, the assessors should know that in a 1 strong tide (unless its velocity is known) the patent log is not only useless, but absolutely misleading, for it means that instead of . checking the vessel's spead with the log, you assume the speed of the ship and reckon the difference is positive or negative slip, according to whether the log shows over 1 ot under the estimated distance your vessel has run. Shipmasters generally throughout the Dominion agree that Captain Naylor was exceedingly cautious from the time he took bis departure from Tory Channel, inasmuch as he set sucn an unusually safe course. Captain Naylor would undoubtedly know that the vessel he mci, was bound out from Wellington, buf how was he to know that the master ot the other vessel was nob also making an outside course? The court contends that Captain Naylor should have known that he was much nearer the coast than he should hawe been from the mere fact that he passed inside the other vessel. This, I contend, is erroneous, for we have the evidenre from both vessels that they were meeting one another so closeiy that they each kept awa-y a little, and miost shipmasters would take it as an indication that they were in a safe position if they met a vessel going in the opposite direction, and passed her close to. The prosecuting counsel (and I use the term advisedly) made capital out of the fact? that Naylor placed the telegraph at "Snand by," and suggested that it was becamse he was in doubt as to his true position. This suggestion was adopted by the court; the nautical experts must hasje known that it is customary to give the engineer warning that his ijervices rmry be required in the, i engine-noosn, when he might possibly be in the stokehold, or up the tunnel, where his various duties might take him. Captain Naylor has been condemned on Ms- own evidence. This, in my opinion, is hardly fair, for this reason : Tom's Rock is the furthest outlying danger on the coasL between Terawhiti and Pencarrow, and a shipmaster would naturally conclude that he had run foul of '.the rock which lies nearest to his vessel's course ; especially is this so in the pra sent case, where such an outside cours*: was steered. It would be interesting to know if the assessors laid off the cnrrt?nt course on the chart. If they did, I .fail to see how the Penguin could have sv'ruek Tom's Piock, even if there was, as. they aver, only a fourknot tide running. This would still leave her a clearance of two miles off the rock when abreast, on a S.E. by E. course. Trusting.. Mr. Editoi, ihat I have not encroaatied too much upon •your space, and thinking you in anticipation. — I am, etc., tongueVpoint light. 11th May. j

. Huston- Curlett, vho has just returned from the ParajLteaa ironfields, in the Nelson' district, giv^s ,a glowing description tot the quality ' JWid extent of ■the ore- field. He told a\^outhern repciter* that there was- siucc^ent ore in. sight to last for hundreds Not" years. - It would be a grent mistakNj to allow fcreign capitalists to step «i, and he thought that the people ot Nt^r Zealand would b.e quite able to bupply* y-uffieient jmoney to develop the fields. "TVere arc •►mountains ot ore close to the sea»iront," ,1m said, "and as the distance X- less than half a mile, the question oiVhifViing will be easy. There is a plentiful supply ol" coal and. limestone in the immeOTMe vicinity, and sufficient watei powcv >o« drive turbines to generate electricity vfoi" smelting, 'lighting, and pow.er. There ys\ a- large sluicing claim bordering on the? deposits, nnd 1 hear that it has beeuwcrking very successfully % "~ \