DELAYED SAILING OF THE MANUKA

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue XC, 7 October 1915, Page 2

DELAYED SAILING OF THE MANUKA

Mr. !T. IW. Young, secretary of the Federated Seamen's Union of New Zealand, questions the accuracy of the statement of the Evening Post on Saturday that the sailing of the Manuka was delayed through the absence of firemen. As a matter of fact, the ship was up for sailing at 8 p.m. Mr. Young himself states that he saw the last, of her crew go up the gangway at 8.25 p.m. This, surely, was twenty-five minutes beyond the latest time the men should have been aboard, irrespective of the time they were required by the officers to be on the ship. Mr. Young says the ship did not finish loading until 8.50. The Post states that she finished at 8.30. Here there is no material discrepency. The point that the men were not on board the Manuka at the time they were required is not cleared up by Mr. Young's letter. Mr Young also points out that the Manuka required five trimmers, but could only obtain three. Consequently, she sailed two short of her legal complement. The Maori also sailed the same night up to time with three firemen short. Men to make up the full legal number were not obtainable that day. Mr. Young points out that the crews of both vessels would have been quite within their rights in refusing to put to sea short-handed, and it is to be inferred from this that he thinks equal publicity should be given to this fact, along with that of the tardy arrival of the men on board the Manuka.