EMPRESS OF IRELAND

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 June 1914, Page 7

EMPRESS OF IRELAND

COUNSEL'S CLOSING SPEECH. STORSTAD INQUIRY. [PKII PME*. ASSOCIATION—COPYHIOHT.] QUEBEC," June 27. At the Empress of Ireland inquiry, Mr. Aspinall in his address, contended that because the wheel was first ported and then without authority changed, to hard aport when he had had steerage way on, the Storstad was responsible for the disaster. He asked the commission to find that the crew of the Storstad were inaccurate when they claimed that the collier refused to answer her helm. He argued that she changed her course, and the ported helm took her into the stationary liner at right angles with sufficient speed to cause fatal damage. If there had been no such change the vessels would have passed safely. He contended that to find that the Empress of Ireland had starboarded her helm would be a charge of perjury against Captain Kendall, who claimed that he had not altered her course.

He scoffed at the idea that Captain Kendall was telling a deliberate he when he had just faced death. Mr. Asoinall charged Saxe, the third officer of the Storstad, with the responsibility for the disaster in taking the wheel from the - helmsman without authority and putting it hard aport. ' WASHINGTON, June 27. The Norwegian inquiry over the storstad, which rammed the Empress of Ireland, will be started to-morrow. The captain and crew appear before the inquiry, which will be held in private, as it is stated that it will be an ordinary inquiry without judgments or forming of opinions as to who are the guilty parties in the disaster. William Johannsen, acting ConsulGeneral in Canada, will be in charge of the inquiry.