SEA ROBBERY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 108, 3 November 1937, Page 31

SEA ROBBERY

A NIAGARA MYSTERY

BAR TILL REMOVED

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, October 28.

A robbery on the high seas—bloodstains on the jagged edges of a broken window, blood on the deck, money missing—yet nobody with a gashed hand aboard the liner. Those were the elements of a mystery on board the Niagara, reported when the liner arrived at Sydney from Auckland.

The robbery occurred before daylight on the day before the liner reached Sydney, and after the commander, Captain A. T. Toten, and the chief officer had carried out an investigation, a wireless, message was sent to Sydney. Detectives went out to the Niagara by launch and boarded her down the harbour.

Soon after -midnight the first-class bar steward placed the takings in the safe below. They amounted to nearly £100. He left about £2 in silver in the till. At 1.35 a.m. the bar was intact. The watchman saw it on his rounds of the ship. At 245 a.m., as he passed again, he noticed that a thick pane, one of six in that particular window, had been broken. He raised the alarm, and investigation revealed that the till had been removed. It was deduced that the thief would have to smash the window and insert his left arm to reach the'till. Spots of blood wfere oh the window and deeper spots were seen on the promenade deck, immediately outside the window. The wireless operator, Mr. Power, reported to Captain Toten that a few minutes after 2 a.m. he saw a man running along the deck from the direction of the bar. He appeared, in the deck light, to be a third-class passenger, arid he ran forward in the direction of the third-class deck. The captain "and his officers began inquiries, the thoroughness of which was praised by the police. It was thought that the mystery would soon be solved, as someone aboard must have a wound on the left forearm. Nobody sought treatment. Every member of the crew was examined, but not one had a wound. Quiet and diplomatic inquiries were continued by the officers among the third-class passengers and the detectives carried out their inquiries, v-; The mystery remained unsolved.