NAUTICAL ENQUIRY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 24 October 1924, Page 7

NAUTICAL ENQUIRY.

STRANDING OF AVAR LORD. KA'! DENCE HEARD AT GISBORNE. Master commended. (by TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION. GISBORNE, Oct. 22. A nautical inquiry was Jiekl to-dav beloic Mr. E. C. Levvey, S.M., and Captains J. Holmes and A. Miller as assessors into the stranding of the schooner War Lord oi’i Waikokopu Jiarbour on July 9. John Lowry, master of the War Loid, said the vessel lelc Gisborne for Waikokopu on July 2 and arrived two days later. On arrival the wind shifted and.witness made for the shelter of a, small reef on Die Mahia side of the bay. When within one mile of the reef a rain squall shut out- the land, and witness was compelled to anchor in about the centre of the bay and about one mile .from the shore. The vessel remained at anchor till July 7, when the cable parted. Witness had only one bower-anchor, the other being on. the wharf at Waikokopu, the vessel on a previous trip having to slip her cable at Waikokopu. In the meantime an anchor had been lent to the ship by the Waikokopu Harbour Board. It had been intended to exchange anchors. Or. the night of the stranding witness let two keclge anchors go for the purpose of keeping the ship stern on to the sea, but- she grounded on the sand and gradually worked up the beach. To Mr. Burnard, who appeared for the underwriters, witness said the regulations required the ship to have two bower-anchors of at least scwt each. ‘That was in the Marine Department regulations, but he did not know it was one of Lloyds’ regulations. * Witness had one . boweranchor. After other evidence had been called by Mr. Nolan, who acted for the Marine Department, Mr. Ohrisp, counsel for the owners, opened their case. Captain Thomas Christian Thompson, master of the Huanui and one time master of the War Lord, said the anchor on the War Lord ' had been placed there by him and used by him. Provided the anchor and chain were heavy he preferred one anchor to two. He had heard the facts regarding, the stranding, and had witness been in charge he would have adopted the same course as Captain Lowry. The Court of Enquiry into the War Lord, stranded on Opoutama Beach, found that the loss o.r damage was caused hy the snapping or breaking of the cable chain attached to the starhoard anchor during a, heavy southerly gale; that the stranding was the resu 11 o* He ,;,v of the cables chain attached to the starboard anchor as aforesaid ; and that the master did all that- was proper to he done in the circumstance, and took all necessary and proper precautions, and acted in a proper and correct method tc- ; ,ensure the safety of the vessel, up to and after the breaking cf the cable chain, and that the casualty Was not due to any wrongful act or default on the part of the master of the vessel. The Court- adds: “The Court is of the opinion that the master is deserving of commendation for the seamanlike manner in which he beached his vessel after the breaking of the cable chain, and thereby avoided loss' of life. Application on behalf of the master for costs against the Marine Department was refused.