BRITISH SHIP LOST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19807, 30 November 1927, Page 11

BRITISH SHIP LOST.

CHARCtE OF OVERLOADING. LOSS OF 23 LIVES. OWNER SENT TO PRISON. By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright. (Received November 29, 5.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. LONDON, Nov. 29. After trial in the High Court Watkin James Williams, aged 46, a shipowner, was sentenced to imprisonment for one. year and ordered to pay the costs of the prosecution on 15 counts, in connection with the charges of sending tlie British steamers Eastway and Tideway to sea in an unseaworthy condition. The Eastway foundered with the of 23 lives in a hurricane near tho Bermudas. The Attorney-General, Sir Douglas Hogg, alleged that ships were persistently overloaded from foreign ports. The Judge, in his summing up, pointed out to the . jury that although Williams had said he had told his marine superintendent to instruct his captains that they must not overload, he had not called the superintendent as a witness. The case was one of the gravest importance both to tho shipping community and t.o sailors.

Watkin James Williams is a Cardiff shipowner who made a meteoric fortune. Tho Eastway was lost 159 miles from Bermuda on October 22. 1926. In August a Board of Trade inquiry showed that the vessel was laden 13ft. Bin. beyond her winter loadline. The Eastway was insured for £64,000, and was worth £50,000. Her dead-weight was 9580 tons, and should have been 9120 tons. The Court blamed Williams for her loss and ordered him to pay £IOOO toward the cost of the inquiry.