TROUBLE ON THE MAORI.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 261, 4 November 1912, Page 6

TROUBLE ON THE MAORI.

ENGINEERS HAVE TO DO THEIR OWN STOKING.

OFFICERS OPENLY DEFIED

Some revelations made last week to a representative of The Christchurch Press disclosed a serious state or affairs on board , the ferry steamer Maori within the past few days. 'After the firemen had obtained, at the point of the bayonet, their two days' extra pay at Wellington last Friday, the engineers had to.hunt the streets and hotels, to get- hold otythe men; and the task of signing on the men was not completed untri 7 p,m. Several of the firemen were cirunk when they joined the steamer between 7 p.m: and 8 p.m., and in the "meantime the chier"-engineers had had to " get a shore gang to clean the fires and raise s*eatn ready for departure. NOT ENOUGH STEAM. The Maori left; the Wellington wharf at 8 p.m., but had not sufficient steam.pressure.to go full speed, and she was nine minutes longer than usual travelling from the wharf to the heads. The weather was fine when she left, but she had not been underway an hour when the southerly hurricane struck her in the strait. Many of the firemen were drunk and incapable of performing their duties, and the junior engineers had to go into the stokeholds and assist in firing. In the midnight to 4 a.m. watch the first engineer—a big, powerful young man—had to keep all the fires in the .forward stokehpld going single-handed, with one drunken fireman wanting to fight him and the others howling, curses and filthy expressions at him the whole time. FIGHTING THE GALE. The Maori had to fight her way to Lyttelton against the gale for seventeen hours, with her engineers dividing their attention between their engines and keeping . steam up in the boilers, with a number of the firemen , incapable from the effects of liquor. The chief engineer, who had been } without sleep for two days—and, indeed, for the,best part of the week— with many worries on his hand, culminating in the outbreak on the part of his firemen on Friday night, collapsed on arrival at Lyttelton, and bad to go ashore on sick leave. More trouble came on Monday when the Maori had to make an excursion trip from Wellington to Picton. The firemen's watches were set at midnight on Sunday, the men being re- .1 quired to raise steam and clean fires for. the start at 7.45 a.m. When sailing time came one j drunken fireman, reeling about the wharf, called out to some of his mates who were leaning over the rail, "Are you going boys? Yj and they replied, condescendingly, "Oh yes, we'll go." ORGIE AT PIOTON. The Maori was delayed until 8 a.m., and even then steam pressure was below requirements, and although she had a strong favorable! tide with her she was three and "a-quarter 'oiours on the run to Picton. The majority of the firemen went ashore there and had a drunken orgie. On the return trip to Wellington they made themselves very objection- ' able amongst the passengers on the fofedeck. Facing the officers on the bridge these insubordinate firemen took up a very truculent attitude, flourishing' bottles of beer and drinking from them. The officers were powerless to interfere, as the men. were in a fighting mood, and it was not desirable to make a worse scene on the decks with 1000 passengers on board. The' Maori was three and three-quarter hours covering the fiftyfour miles from Picton to Wellington, with a partly favorable tide, want of steam pressure in the boilers, owing to the incapacity of the firemen, keeping her speed down to 14 knots instead of 1,8 or 19 knots. STEAMER DELAYED. Owing to her late arrival the Maori i was delayed in leaving Wellington for Lyttelton for forty minutes. Two firemen "cleared out" and sent a telegram to the chief engineer saying that they could not go in the ship. The chief engineer had then to go ashore, and managed to get four men. He put three of his trimmers on as firemen, and by taking a sober, steady man from another watch made up his complement of five firemen and three trimmers for the 8 p.m. to midnight watch, four of the regular men being under the influence of drink and refusing to turn out of their bunks to keep their watch. •■ Still short of steam the Maori left Wellington at 8.40 p.m., and although the weather was fine and the sea smooth, and she had good coal, the steamer could not work up to anything near full speed, and she did not reach Lyttelton wharf until 7.40 a.m. on Tuesday, consequently missing her connection with the first express, for the south. The vessel was capable of arriving at 8.30 a.m. had she had , the steam, but the majority of her firemen were incapable of doing their work properly. ANOTHER INSTANCE. But while the case of the Maori's Irremcn is a vory serious one, it is by

|no moans an isolated instance. A j I few day's ago a collier left a river port ; ' with her full complement of three \ ; firemen lying unconscious in their i I bunks the worse for liquor. The en- ! gineers raised sufficient steam to en- I able the steamer to leave on, the tide, j but the ship had not got many miles ; out to sea before she met a heavy westerly gale. The firemen were lying in their bunks with the ship j wallowing helplessly in the trough of j the big seas, while her engineers j struggled to keep sufficient steam in the boilers to keep the engines going. It was some hours before the firemen . recovered sufficiently to do their work ] .' in a dased fashion, but the steamer I weathered the gale.