BROACHED CARGO

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 11, 12 July 1930, Page 7

BROACHED CARGO

SEA APPRENTICES CHARGED

(From "The Post's" Representative.) . LONDON, 22nd May.

Four cadet apprentices from the Northumberland, which in January was carrying a general cargo from England to New Zealand, appeared at the East Hasn Police Court on 17th May to answer a charge of theft.

The youths, Jack Mellier Martin (19), Gilbert Hugo Gordon Coventry (19), Frank Victor Small (19), and Edward Croft Davies (18), were charged with being concerned together iv stealing 9500 cigarettes, 101 tablets of soap, 18 tins of sardines, 24 llusks of whisky, and 12 bottles of lime juice. Mr. F. Peregrine, for the prosecution, said that these young men were four out of. about 40 cadet apprentices oil board the Northumberland. This broaching of cargo was exactly comparable to breaking into a warehouse on shore. The owners were anxious not to ruin the lads-characters, and whatever happened at the- Court their careers at sea were already seriously affected. Each lad desired voluntarily to cancel the articles of apprenticeship, and having regard to that fact counsel did not propose to offer any evidence-. The Bench decided to adjourn the case until 31st May. In the meantime, the whole of the papers would bo forwarded to the Director of Pubjie Prosecutions for -his direction.