THE SHIPPING TROUBLE.

Evening Star, Issue 18160, 28 December 1922, Page 6

THE SHIPPING TROUBLE.

ANOTHER SCARE STORY SCOTCHED. MOERAKTS VOYAGE FROM SYDNEY. [Per Unitkd Press Association.) WELLINGTON, December 28. _ The assistant secretary of the Heameifs Union (Mr F. C.’Howell) makes the statement that the seamen and firemen on the Mooraki are not competent. He says that, according fo Mr J. Neill, a passenger on the Moeraki, there was only one competent fireman: and on Sunday, December 10, between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m., the .ship only steamed one and a-h.ili knots, there oeing only two men in the stokehold. Also, be states that the majority of the men employed as seamen could not steer the ship, ant! were driven in to the stokehold to assist in firing the furnaces. The passengers were appealed to, and memners of the English cricket team responded. The union official also publishes a signed statement by two other passengers to a similar effect.

On being shown the statements this morning, Captain Clift, ol the Moeraki, said that the men in the deck department and the stokehold were all qualified. Some had not been to sea for some time; but one deck hand held a master's certificate, another a second mate’s ticket, while some had been able seamen in the Rojal Navy. With regard to the allegation that .some of the seamen could not steer, Captain Clift declared that they were excellent men at the wheel, and made better courses with the ship than members of the regular crew. 'The men were not “driven'' into the stokehold. The position was that two extra men wore being carried on deck, and as they were not required they were sent into the stokehold', it was absolutely (also to say that the passengers were appealed to, and that members of the English cricket learn responded. The cricketers were not asked to go into the stokehold. Captain Clift also stated that during the trip to Auckland the ship averaged a full eleven knots per hour.