EXTRAORDINARY DEADLOCK

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7021, 8 January 1910, Page 5

EXTRAORDINARY DEADLOCK

NORWEGIAN SAILORS DEMAND TO BE PAID OFF. CAPTAIN FIRM IN HIS REFUSAL. FREES ASSOCIATION. WESTPORT, January 7. A unique condition of affairs, producing an extraordinary deadlock, has arisen between the captain and crew of the Norwegian barque Odd, now lying at Westport. The difficulties obtaining are chiefly due to tho fact that the Odd, ber ing a foreign vessel, is not subject to the new shipping law. Upon the arrival of the barque from Matupi, the crew presented to the ViceConsul for Norway a written complaint covering matters of food supply, etc., and demanding that they be paid off at this port. This Captain Torgensen declined to agree to, and denied that there were any grounds for food complaints. The mates and seamen then refused to work, but declined to leave the ship. The result has been that shore labour has had to be employed in discharging ballast.

As things stand at present, the crew refuse to work or leave the ship, and the captain refuses to discharge them. It would seem that lack of jurisdiction over a vessel flying a foreign fla£ prevents the rights and wrongs of the dispute being investigated in the Magistral's Court, and to have the case dealt with in Norway would be a protracted and expensive matter.