GROUNDING OF COASTAL STEAMER

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6812, 16 January 1929, Page 7

GROUNDING OF COASTAL STEAMER

NAUTICAL INQUIRY.

i Per Press Association. * WELLINGTON, Jan. 15.

A nautical inquiry was opened today with regard to the grounding of tho-Invoroargill at Ohau Point on tho morning of December S while en route from Wanganui to Wellington. Tho mastor, Captain Smith, gave evidence that he was called at 11 p.m. when he found that the weather was thick, but not thick enough to slow down, and ho wont back to his cabin. He. wont on duty again at midnight and made an allowance of a mile an hour for six hours on account of the tide. His course would tako him three and. a half miles clear of tho point. The ship struck at 3.10 a.m. He had made, 211 trips on that route. . His practico was not to run more than eight hours from tho Wanganui bar ia thick weather; ho would thon make for the open sea and would nevor enter Cook Strait until ho could sco the Brothers' light. There waß no hurry to mako port as tho ship did not-have to reach AVellingtou until 8 o’clock. He had consulted the chart sinco the mishap and found that his dead reckoning was a mile per hour out. Ho agreed that it was a considerable error. Ho did not take soundings bccauso he did not think he was out of deep water. Ho attributed tho stranding of the vessel to the abnormal sea which took him on to Ohau Point an hour and ten minutes sooner than ho had ever done the distance even in a good trip. He saw land soon enough to take some way off. He put the engines astern and the ship backed steadily. Very little damage was done. Richard Hart, the mate of the vessel, sai4 that he had been or. the run for 20 years. Ho had never seen .a log used for soundings taken between Wanganui and Wellington. He agreed that there must have been an unusual set on the night of the mishap. There were no meteorological conditions indicating an abnormal sot and he did not think tho use of a log could have helped. James Dalziell, the engineer, said that the engines were run slightly under full speed.' The trip was an unusuallv fast one.

The court intimated that it would give its decision to-morrow morning.