SALVAGE WRITS FOR 160,000 SERVED ON WANGANELLA

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22617, 21 April 1948, Page 4

SALVAGE WRITS FOR 160,000 SERVED ON WANGANELLA

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, April 21. A ceremony intended for other days was performed yesterday with some difficulty when two writs of summons in actions for salvage were affixed to the mainmast of the Wanganella in the Wellington floating dock.

In each writ is set out a claim for £30,000 in reward for services rendered to the Wanganella while in danger on Barrett’s Reef.

One claim is by the Wellington Harbour Board and masters and crews of the board's tug Toia and the launch Arahina and the other is by the Wanganui Harbour Board and the master and crew of the tug Kahanui. The writs are issued out of the Supreme Court of New Zealand at Wellington in its Admiralty jurisdiction. Under the old Admiralty rules the writs are against the ship itself and the rules provide that service is to be effected by affixing them to its mainmast. Made for the time when ships had wooden masts and legal documents were probably one sheet of stout parchment which could be firmly nailed in position, the rule is more difficult to comply with now that most ships have metal masts and the ceremony is no longer the dignified and impressive one it must once have been. Two or three men who happened to be working nearby and a reporter and a photographer were the sole spectators as Mr. C. S. Turnbull, representing the Wellington Harbour Board’s solicitor, Mr. J. F. B. Stevenson, struggled yesterday to affix the two writs to the steel mast with gummed paper. Comprising several sheets of foolscap each, the writs were pulled away several times before they were induced to remain in position together for a few seconds —long enough to fulfil the law. There were no formal words and the writs were immediately removed and taken to the acting-master of the Wanganella, Mr. A. V/. McDonald, who had not been present at the ceremony and who received them without comment. In due course the action will be heard by a judge of the Supreme Court acting in the Court's Admiralty Jurisdiction. After the hearing of the evidence the Court has to decide what salvage award it will make, and unon making any award it fixes, in the first place, a total lump sum for all the plaintiffs, and then usually proceeds to divide that amount among the plaintiffs in such proportion as it considers just. If any award is made and is not paid by the underwriters or the owners the ship is security for the amount. In the present action Mr. Stevenson will appear for the two harbour boards, Mr. E. P. Hay for the three tug masters and Mr. C. A. L. Treadwell for the three crews. A writ was similarly served on the Golden Harvest ns she lay on the floating dock after striking Barrett’s Beef in 1933, and also on the Pakura following her mishap near Tora landing, on the east coast of the North Island in 1931, In both these cases the plaintiffs were the Wellington Harbor Board and the master and crew of the tug Toia.