A QUEER JUDGMENT

Evening Star, Issue 14529, 31 March 1911, Page 9

A QUEER JUDGMENT

IN THE KNIGHT OF THE GARTER CASE. Many persons who have read the evidence given at the inquiry into the stranding of the steamer Knight of the Garter it Bluff Harbor have come to the conclusion that the finding of the Court was unfair to Captain Finnia, and wo propose to set out in short form the leading facts elicited, with the view of letting in.more light upon a judgment that seems open to challenge. Captain Finds'was a stranger to the Bloff. When ordered to that port he was supplied with a copy of the ' New Zealand Pilot' and an Admiralty chart. The vessel made the Bluff entrance early on the morning of. tho 17th February. The sea was cairn, there was no wind. The signal station on tho hill was obscured by fog. As the captain*did not have a pilotage exemption certificate, he slowed down and looked about for the pilot to board, in compliance with his signal, which ho expected to bo acknowledged at Stirling Point, since the 'Pilot' informed him that when the upper signal station is enshrouded in * mist the communication ehould bo with Stirling Point. Ho saw no acknowledgment of the signal, he 6aw no sign of tho pilot coming. So ho kept on at slow speed. It is arguable that, instead of steaming on, he ought to have anchored and waited for the pilot. But we must not hastily blame the captain for not waiting. There was some authority for his action in going on. For one thing, the 'Pilot' informed him that steamers of moderate draught and full power may enter at all times of the tide. Well, tho Knight of tho Garter is an eleven-knot vessel, and she was drawing 22ft Bin, or about 4ft less than her full draught, so tho captain might_ fairly assume that hi 3 vessel camo within the description of those which m.yjht en tor at all times of the tide. Then he was also informed in his official guide that tho pilot would come in a tug. He saw no tug approaching, and could not understand why she did not appear. The harbor men said at the inquiry that they did not move out because of the fog. Tho answer to this is tho captain's declaration on oath that before reaching tho outer red buoy he could see the beacons in the harbor. Ono more glance at the book by the captain, and ho reads that the pilot will probably come on board at Stirling Point. That is the only place in the 'Pilot' where there is any indication as to where the pilot will be met. We may conclude, then, that those who blame Captain Finnis for entering the port without a pilot must explain away tho several reasons which, in his judgment, warranted him in creeping in on this fine morning, when he had apparently come upon a port that was asleep. Once inside the outer marks, the captain had to go on. Admittedly ho was in a hazardous predicament. But he could not safely turn ; he could not have steered the vessel, sho having only one propeller, if he had tried to back out 6tem-first; and in the circumstances it seemed to him that it would bo less risky to go on as slowly as possible, in tho expectation of the pilot's arrival. So the Knight of the Garter kept moving ahead, and all went right, even after she got into the full run of the tide, until suddenly she took a sheer, owing to tho tide beating her " way," and before speed could be got on so as to make the port helm answer sho struck on the rocks.

That is an outline nf the happenings from the captain's point of view. What were the shore men doing in the meantime? At ten minutes to six the night watchman telephoned that the ship was at anchor. That was not a fact. Then the day watchman, coming on, noticed that the vessel was moving in. But he did nothing by way of communicating that information to the harbor-master until the vessel was almcst abreast of Stirling Point. And there was evidently a considerable amount of confusion on the part of the staff. Mr Norman M'Donald, harbormaster and chief pilot, said in his evidence that at six o'clock he wa,s told there was a ship whistling. About 6.50 ho got word from Fraser (the boatman) that the ship was flying a pilot jack. It was not reported to him that Fraser had seen the boat at five minutes to six, between two and three miles off the station. Ho got ho word as to what the ship was doing between 5.50 and 6.50. He could not explain this. If it had been reported sooner was coming in towards the red buoy and Stirling Point, he could have sent off a pilot to board her from Stirling Point, and the pilot could have gone down with the tide to meet the ship. Moreover, the arrangements down there must be delightfully planned when a watchman who see 3 anything going wront; has to run about 500 yds one way to call Pilot Gifford and about 100 yds another way to inform the boatman! Further, the official guides tell visiting mariners to communicate with the at Stirling Point, when, a 6 a fact, the flagstaff there was taken away yeare ago; and the promises of instructfons from the semaphore are equally useless seeing that there is no semaphore and no place to put one on. One cannot ajtogether exonerate the Bluff Harbor Board from blame in regard to this false information. They should take care to have it corrected. The fairy tales about a flagstaff that does not exist, and a semaphore that is not there, and a tug that cannot go out in a fog may be amusing to the local people, and a subject for merriment amongst captains who know the port; but -to a stranger these things are possible factors in life and death propositions, and the present state of affairs js not creditable. On a fair review of all the circumstances it seems to ua that the captain may have been to some extent to blame for going past the red buoy without a pilot, but that his error was as nothing by comparison with the muddles of the people ashore, and that it is a grave injustice to fine the captain £4O and the Harbor Board £9 odd, since it would make the outside world believe that the captain's share of the blame was as 4 to 1, whereas in fact the bulk of the blame lieo on the Board.

What wo rely on for proof of this assertion is the fact that though tho ressel was in eight before 6 a.m. the harbor-master did not get to her till 8 a.m. So far as one can judge, if Captain Fhmis had been left wholly to himself, and knew that no one would como to help him, he would probably havo brought in his ship 6afely, for it was the going slow that caused her to sheer on to the rocks. The captain knew his business well. Ho oven- knew enough to mistrust tho Admiralty chart as to the position of tho beacons and lightship. He guessed instinctively that the lightship had been shifted, and disregarded her, steering instead by tho beacons. The attention of the Minister of Marine should be called to this stranding. He should be asked, for the 6ake of New Zealand's -reputation, to test tho official finding, and if he discovers that a blunder has been made, and a stranger unjustly treated, it would be a fair thing to make the amende at once.