CAPTAIN TOO OLD

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 111, 11 April 1931, Page 12

CAPTAIN TOO OLD

WRECK OF HIGHLAND HOPE. OWNERS HELD BLAMEWORTHY. Captain T. J. Jones, the 75-year-old master of the British motor-vessel Higliland Hope, was censured by the Board of Trade inquiry into the stranding and loss of the 6liip. The vessel was wrecked during fog on the Farilhoes rocks, off the coast of Portugal, on November 19, last, while on a voyage from London to South * America, calling at Vigo and Lisbon. All on board were saved except one Spanish emigrant,. who died from injuries received in jumping into a boat. The total insurance carried on the vessel and cargo amounted to about £1,000,000. Captain Jones, the master of the vessel, had been the second senior master in the service of the Nelson Line. The Court found that the stranding and loss of tiro ship were due to the failure of the master to navigate the ship with proper and seamanlike care, in that he •1. Set the course from an indefinite point of departure, which, if maintained, was calculated to bring the ship into dangerous proximity to the Farilhoes rocks, on which the ship ultimately struck. 2. Failed to alter course or to use means at his disposal for verifying his position by soundings or otherwise when the ship ran into fog; and 3. Failed to reduce speed when the ship was enveloped in fog. The master was found in grave default, and his certificate was suspended for six months.

OFFICERS REMISS IN DUTY. The second officer, Mr Herbert Robert Welsh, was considered to ho remiss in his duties, especially in not reporting to tho master, when the latter came on the bridge after 4.13 a.m. on November 19, that a position had been obtained by a hearing on the Leixoes Light by the third officer. The Court severely reprimanded the chief officer, Mr Horace Hugh Thomas, for concealing the fact that he had brought the deck scrap log ashore, whereby the duration and expense of the inquiry were much increased, and for his conduct in subsequently destroying this log, whereby the Court was greatly hampered in its investigation. The chief officer was ordered to pay to the solicitors of the Board of Trade £lO on account of the expenses of tlic investigation. The Court added that the work of disembarking the passengers after tiro stranding of the ship was carried out by all concerned, under tile supervision of the chief officer, with great skill and promptitude in circumstances of great difficulty, and desired especially to commend the fourth officer, Mr Gerald Joseph Parry, for his courage and resource in dealing with the situation created by an accident to a lifeboat.

The Court considered that the owners could not be absolved from all blame for this casualty, in that they employed as master of their ship a man whose age was such that lie could not reasonably be expected to withstand the mental and physical strain involved in commanding a large and fast passenger vessel. In an annexe to the report, the president, Mr J. H. Harris, stated that tho Court considered the navigation of the Highland Hope by her master, from the time she rail into fog in the early hours of November 19 until she struck, was of an utterly imprudent and unseamanlike character, and that the master must take full responsibility. INEXPLICABLE DEFAULT. In the opinion of the Court, when the fog became denso speed should have been at once reduced, and a line of soundings taken, seeing that the vessel was approaching dangerous rocks which, to the master’s knowledge, .were without light and fog signals. It seemed inexplicable that ho should not have taken the elementary precaution of hauling the vessel out to the west as soon as she ran into fog, or of reducing speed and using the lead. In reference to the chief officer’s statement that he threw the deck scrap log into the Bay of Biscay, the Court considered that it was far more probable that he took it home. Evidently he retained the documents for some time without disclosing the fact that lie brought them off the ship. The Court did not accept the statement that he destroyed the log on the ground that he would get into trouble for using the scrap log instead of a slate. It found that there was no such rule that only slates should be used, and the explanation, in any case, was quite insufficient to explain the destruction of such an important document. His conduct was most reprehensible and there was no extenuation for it except the possible mistaken sense of loyalty to others. Counsel for tho fourth officer raised the question of costs, pointing out that the conduct of his client had been such throughout that he had come off with flying colours. The president said that he thought both the third and fourth officers should be allowed £SO toward thencosts. CAPTAIN’S STATEMENT. Captain Jones said after the inquiry: “I do not wish in any way to discuss the findings of the Court. I have been tried and the Court has pronounced its verdict. I leave it to tho public. I have been at sea for many years, and I have lost only one life. I do not think I can add anything to that. . . “In a sense I am glad that it is all over. The last three months have been a severe strain. Whether I shall go to sea or not when my six months’ suspension is up rests with the owners of the Nelson Line.” Captain Jones, who scarcely looks his age. is the holder of a gold medal awarded bv the United States for saving life during a gale in the Atlantic.