WRECK OF THE KARU

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 71, 24 March 1926, Page 10

WRECK OF THE KARU

THE INQUIRY OPENED

CAPTAIN GIVES EVIDENCE

STORY ABOUT BUSTED PLATES.

7 (By Telegraph.—Proas Association.) AUCKLAND, This Day. The Court of Inquiry regarding the wreck of the Karu' was opened before Mr. Cutten, S.M., and Captains Bradwood and Owens, as assessors, to-day. Mr. Meredith, Crown Solicitor, in his opening, said that Thomas Halliday, who went as far as Hokianga in the Karu and then left her, had made some rather startling statements. He had made a statement that while working below lie had tried'the' plates with a penknife, found them coated with rust, and that the plates were so thin that he pushed his. penknife through them. He had an argument: with the captain about payment for working bunkers and cargo, and he had used this as an excuse for leaving the ship at Hokianga; but his real.reason, he said, was that he considered the: ship unsafe. I Captain Tomilson, surveyor of ships, stated that when the Karu was in Auckland he inspected, the foremast and the life-saving appliances,, and sawsurvey certificates issued in New South Wales in January, which covered the current year. He received no coraplaints from anyone ■■ about the vessel-. There was no official inspection of the hull so far as he knew. . '• Captain Richmond, Master of the ! Karu, said the vessel did not touch the Whangape Bar when crossing, but in berthing touched a pile with her stern. An examination showed no damage. The timber cargo was stowed so that thore i7as absolutely no room for it to move. The Karu was towed out, and when in the vicinity of the bar touched something once. Soundings were taken, and showed no sign of leakage. The weather got bad, and he reduced speed. At 8 o'clock he turned the ship over 0 to the chief officer, and a little later the, second officer reported water in the hold. Speed was further reduced, and the ship was practically hove to. The wind was blowing very hard. The pumps could not cope with the water, and he got tho lifeboats out and set a course to run for shelter. About daylight the ship lost her steering way. • . ■ . '. . (Proceeding.) .