SHIP’S HATCHES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27386, 11 May 1950, Page 6

SHIP’S HATCHES

Considered Dangerous. ACTION BY DUNEDIN WATERSIDERS Claiming that the new type of hatches on the 8462-ton freighter Defoe are dangerous to handle, Dunedin watersiders —following the lead of watersiders at the main northern ports —have not worked the ship after 5 p.m. since she arrived at Dunedin on May 3 to discharge cargo from Liverpool. The decision to take this action was first made at Auckland soon after the vessel arrived in February. It is understood that the Marine Department’s surveyor has issued a certificate stating that the hatches are safe to handle by day and night. The area round the hatches- can be floodlit to give the effect of actual daylight conditions. The Defoe arrived at Auckland on February 19 and was due to discharge at Dunedin between March 22 and 27. She arrived here on May 3 and is expected to sail tomorrow. The secretary of the Dunedin branch of the Waterside Workers’ Union, Mr S. B. Macdonald, told the Daily Times yesterday that his union considered that the hatches on the Defoe were unsafe, and the Dunedin watersiders were adopting the same attitude as the northern unions. He said that at Auckland, Wellington and Lyttelton, the Defoe had not been worked after 5 p.m.