SHIPOWNER SENT TO GAOL

Evening Star, Issue 19762, 12 January 1928, Page 12

SHIPOWNER SENT TO GAOL

OVERLOADING HIS VESSEL 11 FALSE TO YOUR GREAT TRUST ” A Cardiff shipowner, Watkin James Williams (40), who was indicted at Cardiff Assizes for having been a party to .sending the British steamships Eastway and Tideway to sea in an unseaworthy condition, was found guilty. There were thirteen counts in the indictment, one relating to the foundering of the Eastway, with the Joss oi twenty-three lives, in a hurricane off the Bermudas, and the other counts to twelve different voyages by the Tideway, still afloat, all from foreign ports. Williams was convicted on all twelve counts and sentenced to twelve months in the second division and ordered to pay the costs of the prosecution. The Attorney-General (Sir Douglas Hogg), leading the case for the Crown, had alleged “ persistent overloading from foreign ports.” The hearing oi the evidence occupied five full days. LAST WORDS OF DEFENCE. In his speech for the defence, Mr G. R. Langton, K.C., said: “The Eastway met a hurricane of unprecedented violence. She was sunk by the hurricane, and by nothing else. Captain ,Vanstone, the competent and gallant master that he was, tried to ‘ cut across the face of the hurricane.’ Ho was right. The ship weathered the gale during the day with the hurricane striking her, and would have come through all right but for the unlucky port bunker hatch, which had been stove in by an exceptionally heavy sea.” The ship,, he contended, could not have been overloaded, as she answered her helm with precision. “This case has an aspect of very serious public importance,” said the Attorney-General. “ The lives of those to-day sailing the seas may well depend on the verdict, if the verdict be such as to encourage others to continue such practices as the prosecution allege resulted in the loss of the Eastway. if people choose to gamble with the lives of sailors to put money into their pockets, I hope the jury will say that that is a practice which cannot be carried on with impunity.” THE SUAIMING UP. Air Justice Wright, summing up, said that the bad hurricane undoubtedly assailed the Eastway. There was evidence that the area through which she had to go ou her voyage was liable to be swept by hurricanes at that time of the year, and one of the questions for the jury was whether the ship, if overloaded to the extent alleged by the prosecution, was seaworthy—that was, reasonably fit to meet the perils which she might fairly be expected to encounter in that area. “I am not quite sure whether some of the witnesses do not think it a laudable thing to overload ships,” Air Justice Wright said, observing that the whole object of the fixing of the loadline by the Board of Trade was to make a ship as safe as was reasonable and proper, “Did the prisoner use all means to see that the ship was seaworthy?” asked Mr Justice Wright. “He is a manager appointed under the Merchant Shipping Act, and a manager under that Act has been described as part of the machinery designed for the protection of lives and property at sea. All he says is that he told his marine superintendent, Captain Alead, to tell the captains of the ships that they must not overload. Captain Alead has not been called as a witness.” Discussing the seriousness of the case if it should be found that tho Eastway was overloaded, Air Justice Wright said: “It is a very painful task to have to sit in judgment on a shipowner in this city, having regard to his position in tho business world, hut you have to bear in mind that the issues go far beyond the personal convenience of any particular citizen. “There has been for the past halfcentury in this country legislation which has tho object of securing ns far as possible that the lives of those who go to sea in ships should not be needlessly and wickedly endangered. If you_ are satisfied that tho lives of those sailors on the Eastway were endangered, and that the prisoner did not- take all reasonable steps to prevent that, then it is your duty to give effect to that view, because otherwise people likeminded might he encouraged to jeopardise the lives of other men.” After dealing with the Tideway case Air Justice Wright said: “You are charged with a duty of the gravest importance to the shipping community and those that go down to the sea in ships. I am quite satisfied that the standard of ship’s management in this city is very high, and if you find there has been a > departure from that standard you will give expression to that in your verdict.” “ FALSE TO YOUR DUTY.” After the jury had returned their verdict of guilty the judge, addressing the prisoner, said: “You have held a position of great trust and responsibility as a shipowner in this city. You have been appointed under the Merchant Shipping Act the manager .of tho two ships in question. In that position it was your duty to see that all proper precautions were taken for the protection of lives and property at sea. “ Everything has been said that could have been said on your behalf. The jury have found that you have been false to the trust reposed in you, and false to the duty which was yours. I cannot do other than regard the offence of which you have been convicted as one which is serious. In this country tho Legislature has for half a century or so taken steps to make it a primary part of its policy that ships should he made, as far as they can be, seaworthy, and that unscrupulous shipowners should not be allowed to overload their ships and risk the lives of those on board. “ You have been found guilty of committing that crime in a number of cases —in thirteen separate cases, in fact. As to the first of these, the ship Eastway was lost, and the jury may well have thought that if she had not been overladen, as she was, she would have weathered the storm as, I have n'o doubt, other ships in that region, in fact, did. You have not been prosecuted for causing the ship to be lost, but you have been prosecuted and you are convicted, however, of not doing your duty so as to see that all reasonable stops wore token for the safety of your ship. The sentence is that yon bo kept in prison in the second division for twelve months, and pay the costs of the prosecution. Air Watkin Williams was immediately* led below.