THETIS INQUIRY
EVIDENCE OF DIVER
ESCAPE HATCH OBSTRUCTED ?
[by CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.]
(Received July 19, 10.45 a.m.) LONDON, July 18
At the Thetis inquiry, a diver, Frederick Orton, described his discovery of the entanglement of a wire with the conning-tower, and expressed the opinion that this may have interfered with the escape hatch. Ho said that he attached a guide rope, and came to the surface. He was then ordered to cut the rope and to cease diving.
Cross-examined, he said that he would have had no difficulty in attaching an air-pipe, or screwing down the forward hatch, in accordance with Captain Oram’s plan. The Attorney-General read the Admiralty statement, that the men intended relying on the Davis escape apparatus, in preference .to waiting in hope of salvage. Mr. Justice Bucknill: This is quite at variance with the rescue plan Captain Oram brought up for raising the ship. lam wondering why the men ceased to escape, and whether they voluntarily decided to stay. The Attorney-General: We are recalling Captain Oram, regarding this matter. ______
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GEST19390719.2.52
Bibliographic details
Greymouth Evening Star, 19 July 1939, Page 7
Word Count
174THETIS INQUIRY Greymouth Evening Star, 19 July 1939, Page 7
Using This Item
The Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd is the copyright owner for the Greymouth Evening Star. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in