NAUTICAL INQUIRY

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 117, 13 November 1935, Page 13

NAUTICAL INQUIRY

CAPTAIN EXONERATED

MISHAP TO WAIPAHI

"The Court has unanimously decided to hand back to the captain his certificate, and I may say on this case, pure and unsullied," stated Mr. E. D. Mosley, S.M., at the completion of the nautical inquiry held yesterday into the circumstances of the mishap to the Union Steam Ship Company's intercolonial and island freighter Waipahi, which touched an obstruction off Pencarrow shortly before midnight on October 30, while outward bound for Auckland. The Magistrate added that the report on the inquiry would be forwarded to the Minister of Marine. With Mr. Mosley as nautical assessors were Captains F. Barron and F. Dewhurst. Mr. N. A. Foden appeared for the Marine Department, Mr. C. A. L. Treadwell for Captain J. E. Warwick, Mr. C. White for the Union Company, and Mr. J. F. B. Stevenson for the Wellington Harbour Board. Evidence concerning the set of flood waters from the Hutt Hiver on the night of the mishap was heard yesterday afternoon. Mr. Treadwell said that he was satisfied the substantial cause of the accident was the weather conditions. There was no suggestion of the sea being so high as to make it dangerous to take the ship out, though the weather was I heavy. Captain Warwick had taken all possible precautions of putting the lights* out, posting the third officer above, the bridge, and a man to look out from the forecastle head. His course was rightly followed, but the abnormal freshet could have taken the ship off its course without the compass showing it. The captain had every reason tb believe he was following z safe course in the half-mile .of navigable water at the Heads. If the witnesses were telling the truth, there was an aggravated distortion of visl bility in the driving rainstorm. Thi: and a south-easterly freshet broughi the ship on to what appeared to have been a rock without any blame beinj attachable to Captain Warwick. The accident was due to a combination o' natural circumstances over which the captain had no control, and which he could not reasonably anticipate. Leonard Whiteman, signalman a' Seatoun Heights, said that on Urn night of October 30 the weather con ditions made visibility bad. The wea ther was at its worst at the harbou: entrance. There was a discoloratioi o£ the harbour water due to a freshe from the Hutt River. The river water, were sweeping' out of the Heads to wards the eastern shore. This concluded the evidence calle< by the Marine Department. Mr. Mosley said he would like som more evidence concerning the set o the flood waters from the river. Mr. Foden said that the master o the Kaitoa had said that he had ex perienced this set at 4 a.m. on Oc tober 31 at flood tide. Captain Wai wick's mishap had occurred at ebl tide, but the experience of the Ka: toa's captain seemed to indicate tha a set was there. "If there is such a set it ought t be well known to navigators and dv allowance should be made for it," sai Mr. Mosley. "The set may ba there one day an not the next," remarked Mr. Treac well. The Magistrate said that his co: leagues knew the port well, and ha never experienced the set.