GREYCLIFFE DISASTER

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 22 November 1927, Page 5

GREYCLIFFE DISASTER

THE PILOT’S EVIDENCE. MOVEMENTS OF THE FERRY. EFFORTS TO AVOID COLLISION. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT SYDNEY, Nov. 21. Captain Carson, who was piloting the Tahiti at the time of the collision, gave evidence that he saw the Greycliffe ahead of him going to Garden Island. He then had her in sight ah the time. Leaving Garden Island wharf she was two ships’ lengths from the Tahiti. The Greycliffe headed for Shark Island, and he steadied the Tahiti for the north end of Shark Island. After passing Garden Island he overtook the Greycliffe rather rapidly. He was travelling from six to seven knots. The overtaking process ceased just afterwards. The Greycliffe was then four points on his bow and a ship’s length from the bridge ot the Tahiti. When almost abreast of Clark Island the Greycliffe altered her course very rapidly towards him, closing in very quickly. He ordered the helm a-starboard and stopped both engines. He then immediately ordered tlie port engine full speed astern, and sounded two blasts of the whistle. All these orders were given practically simultaneously. He thought the ships were going to clear, hut the Greycliffe appeared to cross at an even more acute angle than she had been doing. The angle of the collision appeared to be between 45 and 75 degrees. With ess estimated his speed at the time of the collision at eight knots, but the engines going astern took some of the way off. From the time the Greycliffe altered her course to the, time of the collision was half to threequarters of a minute. Up to the time the Greycliffe altered her course witness was not conscious of. any risk of danger. He followed a course as nearly as possible in accordance with sailing directions. Asked if. as he was overhauling the Greycliffe, he saw no reason to slacken speed, Captain Carson said he saw no such reason. The case for the Navigation Department then closed. Further lengthy evidence and crossexamination of witnesses occupied the whole day. The evidence* was chiefly with reference to the colliding of the vessels, but added little to that already tendered. One. witness declared that the Tahiti sounded her whistle twenty seconds before she struck the Greycliffe. Another estimated that the Tahiti was travelling two miles an hour faster than the Greycliffe, and that the latter changed her course a minute before the collision, and that just before this he heard the Tahiti sound two short blasts. The remaining portion of the Greycliffe was raised to-day and beached, but no more bodies came to light when the wreckage was lifted from the hai'bour bottom. Yesterday’s reference to the dead totalling 45 includes also Ithose reported as missing