SEAMEN'S CHARGES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22401, 23 April 1936, Page 11

SEAMEN'S CHARGES

SAFETY LAWS IGNORED SHIPPING IN AMERICA (Received April 22. 6.15 p.m.) •WASHINGTON, April 21 Some of the seamen who were involved in a recent case of mutiny appealed to-day to the Secretaries of Commerce and Labour, Mr. D. C. Roper and Miss Frances Perkins, for arbitration in their case. The men also urged that the laws governing safety at sea should be more rigidly enforced. Several of the men testified to almost unbelievable incidents of inefficiency and carelessness alleged to have been practised by ship operators. They told of passenger vessels carrying lifeboats with holes in them and others which could not bo moved from their moorings. In one case a vessel with nine lifeboats had only eight licensed seamen on board. Veterans of the Morro Castle tragedy attributed the heavy loss of life to the presence of inexperienced seamen carrying forged credentials, while it was said that the loss of life on the Mohawk was largely caused by the freezing of lifeboats to the deck. Evidence was presented in answer to charges that sabotage by Radicals was responsible for recent disasters at sea.

Members of the crew of the steamer California, belonging to tho Panama Pacific Line, delayed her sailing from San Pedro to New York from March 2 to March 5. A basis for arbitration was then reached and tho vessel sailed. It was revealed later that the Secretary of Commerce, Mr. D. 0. Roper, whose department controls shipping, insisted that the crew had been guilty of mutiny, and ho referred tho case to the Department of Justice for prosecutions. Miss Perkins insisted that the incident was merely a strike. Tho Morro Castle disaster occurred on September 8, 1934, when tho American cruising liner was destroyed by fire. Of the 318 passengers, 134 were lost, and 91 of the 240 members of the crew perished. Fourteen passengers and 32 members of the crew of the liner Mohawk were lost when she founderedjpff New Jersey on January. 24,, 1935.