LOST IN RIPPLE

NZ Truth, Issue 1045, 5 December 1925, Page 8

LOST IN RIPPLE

A LITTLE LIST , Chief Officer's Widow Snes What happened on the steamer Ripple, when she foundered with all hands off Cape Palliser on the night of August 3, last year, m a terrific gale, no man on earth can say. The loss of the vessel is one of the thousand mysteries the sea holds fast. A nautical inquiry following the disaster decided that no blame was attachable to anyone, and, as for the cause, that it was an act of God. And a special jury of twelve summoned m the . Wellington Supreme Court has been no more specific. The jury was summoned on a compensation ciaim for £1500 made by Maud Ellen Nicholson, widow of the late chief officer of the vessel, against the owners, Richardson and Co., Ltd., on the grounds that the company had been guilty of negligence. The hearing occupied three days, m which certain fresh evidence not called at the nautical inquiry was brought to show that the vessel left port with a list, and a heavy deck cargo, m the face of a threatening storm. The jury then had a tangled skein to unwind. Firstly, they had to decide whether the skipper was justified m view of the weather m putting to sea. Then, did the vessel have a list? "And if so, to what was it due? If to improper stowage of the deck cargo, was Nicholson, as chief officer, responsible? If so, the claim would fail. And then, more difficult still, presuming they decided that the vessel left port with a list and an improperly stowed cargo for which Nicholson was notresponsible, was that the cause of the disaster? The jury's verdict was for the defendant company, against whom, certain costs were allowed. Mr. P. J. O'Regan appeared for plaintiff and Messrs. G. G. Watson and J. F. B. Stevenson for defendants.