FOOD SHIP MYSTERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16847, 11 May 1918, Page 2 (Supplement)

FOOD SHIP MYSTERY.

SUPPOSED PLOT BY GERMAN SPY. The supposed attempt by a German spy to sink a British food ship was related during a commercial law suit which came before Mr. Justice McCardie in the King's Bench, London. ■ Messrs. Joseph Rank, Ltd., sued the Cunard Steamship Company to recover £2015 for damage by water to a cargo of wheat shipped from New York to London. The steamship owners denied that the damage was due to unseaworthiness, and said a porthole must have been deliberately opened by a German- spy at New York. Their counsel said written evidence would establish that the portholes were all carefully inspected and closed before the cargo was put in. The ship, the Pannonia, was loaded by stevedores regularly i employed by the Cunard Company, and there was no reason to suspect them. It j was known by everybody that German | spies had been active at New York, and , when the loading took .place every precaution was taken. There had been at- ] tempts to Bomb ships, and large bodies of detective were on the watch all the i time. The man who opened the porthole j must have used a spanner and worked j back three bolts. ' It was only by sheer good fortune that the ship and her valu- j able cargo were not entirely lost. The evidence of Captain Robert Capper, ] the master, was read. He said that during the loading the ship's officers were continuously on duty. Since the war the Cunard Company had engaged a number of detectives to supervise the loading and discharging of cargo. All precautions were taken to see that the ports were ! properly closed. On the voyage to EngI land the ship behaved strangely, and sft of water was found on the port side of one hold. His view was that there had been a deliberate attempt to sink the ship. Expert evidence was called to support the defendants' theory that there was a deliberate act by an enemy in unfastening the porthole. Judgment was reserved.