LOSS OF A SCOW

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 140, 15 June 1936, Page 11

LOSS OF A SCOW

FOUNDERS IN STORM

NAUTICAL INQUIRY

(liy Tclfgriipli—i'rens Association.) AUCKLAND, This Day. An inquiry into the sinking of the 35-ton auxiliary scow Kaiaia near Mercury Bay on March 25 was opened this morning before Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., with whom were associated as assessors Captain D. Bell, Captain E. W. Norton, and Mr. E. R. Lane. The Crown was represented by Mr. V. N. Hubble, who said the Minister of Marine desired to know the cause of the foundering.

Captain S. Aspden, the master, gave evidence that the vessel was owned by the Aspden Shipping Company. She left Auckland at 1J.45 a.m. on March 24 with about twenty tons of general cargo and eighty-five drums of benzine, of which thirty were on deck. Cape Colville was rounded at 6 p.m. The wind was fair and the vessel was under sail with the engines running. He went below at midnight and was called at 2.30 a.m. by the engineer as the wind was blowing hard from the south-east and there was a rising sea.

At 4.30 a.m., continued witness, the vessel was leaking, so the two deck pumps were manned and the vessel made for Mercury Bay. An hour later the ship was sinking and unmanageable and he gave orders to abandon ship. With the engineer and one of the crew he lowered the lifeboat, the other two members of the crew having been washed overboard, but were picked up by the boat. The scow soon after sank by the head in 35 fathoms of water about a mile and a half south of Castle Rock.

Witness said he was a shareholder in the company and knew the vessel was uninsured. By oversight his part of the deck cargo had not been inspected but he had no trouble with it.

Replying to Mr. Gould, counsel for the owners, witness said he knew that following the severe storm-in February there were a lot of logs floating in the Bay of Plenty. He thought the vessel had struck a log without the shock being noticed owing to the pounding of the seas. The ship was well found and fully manned. He estimated the loss to the company at £1500.