THE "CASTOR OIL" SIGNAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 13983, 12 February 1909, Page 7

THE "CASTOR OIL" SIGNAL.

A WANGANUI EPISODE. The master of the New Zealand Shipping Company's steamer Kaikoura (Captain McKellar) has a grievance, which he ventilated in a letter read at the Wanganui Harbour Board meeting last week (says a Wanganui exchange), He complained that when his steamer was lying in the roadstead on January 29 lie was insulted by the pilot. The circumstances were as follows:—It being his first visit to the Wanganui roadstead the captain wished to ascertain if he had anchored at the proper spot, and, as he feared bad weather was approaching, lie signalled the pilot station asking if there had been any alteration in the landmarks .indicating the anchorage. "To my surprise," wrote Captain MeKellar, "the pilot signalled, 'Would advise castor oil.' I replied, 'Don't understand your signal.' This was answered as follows: ' I cannot stop to receive communication.' I beg to take the strongest exception to the signals," continued the writer, who added, "my signals might have been misunderstood by those on chore, but that could have been conveyed to me without such a gratuitous insult, which wa6 read by the officers and signalmen on the bridge." The letter concluded with a request for an apology. The pilot's answer put a different complexion on the story. He said that shortly before noon the Kaikoura signalled : " When will lighter be off?" Half an hour later another signal was hoisted: "Will you forward following message?" " I replied in the affirmative," said the pilot, " but my signal was not answered for some fifteen minutes. The next message was, " Heavy weather is coining; look sharp." As the lighter was then discharging alongside the Kaikoura, I concluded that the signalling was the 'work of some of the junior officers, who were fooling to put in time, as has been done dozens of times on the liners in the roadstead. What convinced me more Uian ever that this was the case was that, with the aid of a spyglass I could see, besides the, officers, a number of ladies on the bridge, evidently enjoying (to them) a. novel and interesting pastime." The pilot said he then hoisted the castor oil signal, facetious signals often being exchanged by both ship and pilot station. Members of the Board treated the affair as a joke, and as the secretary stated he had sent to the captain a copy of the pilot's reply, the matter was allowed to drop.