THREE MEN IN A SHIP

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9622, 30 March 1917, Page 6

THREE MEN IN A SHIP

£SOOO SALVAGE AWARD THRILLING SKA STORY TOLD IN ADMIRALTY COURT. LONDON, January 31An extraordinary talc of tho sea was told to Sir Samuel Evans in the Admiralty Court to-day. Three seamen —tie second mate, Robert Fergusson^T* - '' two firemen, Thomas Welch aW John Smith —of the ocean-going tug Vigilant, mad© a novel claim to salvage remuneration for salving their ship under the following circumstances: — She was buffeted so violently by westerly gales on a voyage from Now York to this country that tho captain eventually sent out the “S.O.S. signal, and two days later (on October 29th) decided to abandon tho vessel. The second mate, it was stated, had made preparations for taking to tho boats with the rest of tho crow when, ’as a Last desperate resort, he appealicd for volunteers to stay with him ana ’endeavour to make her weather the igale. Tho crew, sixteen in all, told ■bim they were “not tired of life,” and only tho two firemen stood by him. •The rest went off to the HollandlAxnerika liner Rijndam, which hove in sight. Tho throe were left on board With, as the captain said, only enough iooal for twenty-four hours. As ho wont over the side with his papers he warned tho second made lie would rover make port. If ho did, ho added, he deserved the ship and a gold modal as well. During their last day aboard the crew had gone about their work in lifeholts. ’The second mate took charge, proceeding to the wheelhouse, and the firemen went to the engine and the fire. Tlie weather grew worse. A particularly heavy sea jammed tho steer-ing-gear, so that th© port helm could not be used, and the cracking of the casting-head of th© dynamo put tho ship in total darkness. Approaching the Irish coast, she missed a reef by fifty feet. The intrepid three mad® the Cardiff roads their destination, as the sun was going down on the evening of November 9th, having spent a fortnight in a craft half-full of water. The legal position, it was urged by Mr Laing, R. 0., for the salvors, was ’that from the moment th© crew decided to abandon the vessel their contract of service with their employers, .the Bay Steamship Company, of Ame- ' rioa, was at an end, and the claimants were not servants of tho company, but separate and unconnected salvors when they salved their own ship. The Vigilant was worth £20,000. Sir Samuel Evans, delivering judgment, said tho description given of the services so courageously and finely rendered by these men hod been truly presented. Tho courage and fine spirit and absence of physical fear displayed by these men one liked to think of as illustrative of tho courage of the British seaman on the waves. Ho hoped Fergnsson and the other two Would put their money in war savings, find to that end 'he directed that the money bo paid into court within seven days. He awarded salvage remuneration of £3OOO in all —£2500 to Fergnsson, the loader, and £1250 each for the other two. \