NOT TO OLD AT SEVENTY-FIVE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21406, 6 August 1931, Page 13

NOT TO OLD AT SEVENTY-FIVE

AGE OF LOST LINER’S CAPTAIN SHIPOWNERS WIN APPEAL . . . ; • . \ At what age do a man’s faculties fail, and is a man too old at-75 to command a liner ? These were,the questions discussed in the appeal in the Admiralty Divisional Court by the Nelson Steam Navigation Company against a finding of the Board of Trade , inquiry in connection with the loss of their liner Highland Hope, which was lost off the coast of Portugal on November 49' last. ■ ' , The .finding challenged by the company was as follows: ; • , , , ;«The court considers that the owners cannot be absolved from ■nll/blamejfpr tbis casualty in that they employed as master of their ship a man whose age was such that. he . could not reasonably be expected to* withstand the niental and : physical strain involved in , commanding a large and fast passenger ship ”: ,' . ) The certificate of the master, Captain Thomas Johnson Jones, tvas suspended lor six months. . .. _ , c „• > ■ Mr Pilcher, for the Board of Trade, stated that as far as he could find there was no evidence directed to the point whether Captain, Jones, because he was to, was incompetent to command the Highland Hope. . , Lord Merrivale: Does this become; an inquiry ■whether there is a- presumption of law’that a man of 75 should be put out of action? . I . Mr Pilcher mentioned that there was a finding that the vessel was adequately and sufficiently manned. * , Mr Dickinson, for the owners, stated that the finding of the court had been made on the bare fact that'Captain Jones was 75. At what age did a mans faculties fail? When he read the newspapers in the case the parallel he had. in mind was that of Mr Gladstone’s last admmisGladstone was 82 when he took office for the last time in ,1892. He retired in 1894 at the age, of 84.],., , , Lord Merrivale: Mr Gladstone was well able to fell oaks at Hawarden at that time. _ , , . . In giving judgment. Lord,;Merrivale remarked that the fact that .Captain Jones was 75 was in substance the only basis of the finding against the owners. The finding, therefore, amounts to this, _ he continued, “ that to employ a man of 7o as master of a vessel-like the Highland Hope was an act of'negligence of .the owners which involved them m blame- for her loss.” All the witnesses ■ had given Captain Jones an exceptionally fine char- ' " In modern times,” went on Lord Merrivale,, “we have known men whose years have gone beyond 75.wh0 have held suen positions as that of Prime Minister and Primate of England, and. the heads of great commercial undertakings, .and they have rendered service which it is a ijian s business to ■ render in his circumstances of life so long as he can. ; . ' “Here there was no charge against the owners and no opportunity of defence,’because the owners were not aware that there was supposed to be a,charge.. That being so, the appeal must be allowed, because the, owners had been condemned unaccused and unheard. “ There was a finding that'the owners were to Blame for having a master of, 75. There was another finding that the ship was properly manned and equipped. How they stand together puzzles me to explain.’ Mr Justice Langton concurred. He added that the real-cause of the loss 6f the vessel was over-confidence by, the master and his officers. >