WILTSHIRE WRECK

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 144, 21 June 1922, Page 18

WILTSHIRE WRECK

CODRT OE INQUIRY

EVIDENCE BY CAPTAIN OF

ARAHURA.

(BT TBLBGHAPH.—PRESS ASSOOIVtIOV.) AUCKLAND, 20th June. At the Court of Inquiry into the wreck of the Wiltshire, Hun May Dryden, master of the Arahura, said he had been six years-and a-half in the Auckland-Napier ■trade, and prior to that traded between Auckland and the Eastern Pacific. On 31st May he passed three miles inside Cuvier light at 5.27 p.m.' He had up to that time experienced light, continuous rain with a moderate sea. On getting the call from the Wiltshire he returned outside Ouvier, passing within 4£ miles of the island. By that time-the wiud and sea had increased. . He saw the light abeam at 6.20 a.m. He had experienced any amount of easterly and north-easterly gales on the Auckland-Napier run. He. had never, experienced any exceptional ■set from east to west in the locality of the Barrier, although if anything the set •was to the eastward. When trading to the Eastern Pacific he always made Cuvier his landfall at night, .but. did not remember having any extraordinary difficulty in picking up the light. The light, to his knowledge, was always working well, but he had not heai-d. fog signals very often. He did not experience any Mt in the vicinity of the Mercury Islands on the night of the disaster, and had never heard of any particular set as the result of easterly winds in that locality. . • ; . - - ■ To Mr. Meredith': Passing Cuvier on the way out he. could not see the light very well owing to thick weather,'and the fog signal was not going. As' the night advanced the weather got worse. James Williamson, master of the schooner Houto, tra-ding between Auckland and Tauranga, said he.had spent almost a lifetime on the coast. Shortly after 12 o'clock on the night of the wreck ho.saw the .flash of Cuvier light as he-cleared the reef at Cape Colville on the starboard track. He saw the loom of the Barrier at a distance of about two miles, and-picked up Cape ! Barrier about a mile off. The weather | /was fairly foggy as the result' of light •rain, and he carried topsails in a fresh breeze. He had not experienced any .exceptional set from the east, off the Barrier. ■ \ Some discussion l>efcween counsel ensued as to the calling- of the master of the Wiltshire, Mr. Mays finally agree- i ing to call Captain Hayward, but in his own time. . ' .'; Mr. Mays announced that the launch is-ent to Cuvier for the lighthouse-keeper had been unable to effect a landing,, but 'they had a certified copy of his observations, and Mr. Meredith had agreed to admit this, with the reservation that it could_ not be claimed that visibility of the light was constant throughout the ■night. Counsel wmild admit'that with the weather prevailing on the night of the wieck the visibility could not be constant, but on that matter the Court could form its own conclusions. Mr. Meredith asked permission to put in an affidavit ly the captain of the steamer Otuania, who came over pra-e-1 iically the same course five days after the Wiltshire. This was granted by the Court, and the hearing was adjourned.