A REBOURCEFUL MARINER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2849, 21 October 1908, Page 43

A REBOURCEFUL MARINER.

Whilst on the high seas the master of a j vessel is somewhat of a law unto himself, j but when im vessel is in port he finds himself hedged about with all manner of more or leas irksome legal formalities. So long &s these are in force against the vessel the I latter must remain in port until claims '

pending are satisfactorily disposed of before being allowed to depart. i At rare intervals the embargo is laid J upon the captain, but in theee ca6es judgment is not quite so eaeily 6atiefied. An amusing cisc in point occurred quite ■ recently at a New Zealand port which j shall be nameless for the present. Irate importers obtained judgment against a certain captain for damage to cargo, due to the alleged negligence of the captain, '

who was more or less bombarded with writs and sheaves of blue paper at every succeeding port. The farther 6outh he came the more tired and sick of the whole affair the captain became, and on the day of the vessel's departure for a foreign port the vessel was searched by several legallooking gentlemen, who were apparently anxious to meet the captain at close range, but at this time nothing short of a rangefinder could have located him. In due

time the pilot took the bridge, saw that all the ship'e papers were in order, and cast off from the wharf, to the visible dismay of the gentlemen who had been watching for | five or six hours for the captain. The | latter being personally unknown to the i pilot, that official, of course, oonoluded that the officer on the bridge with him was the commander of the vessel, and when approaching the harbour limits he was not very much surprised to be told by the I

pseudo captain that a passenger was to join from a small launch which was seen approaching. In due time the passenger came on deck, and the vessel went out in good shape; but wihen matters came to be analysed later it turned out that the captain had for the time-being cleverly outwitted hie persistent official friends, who had been so anxious to obtain documentary evidence of his intention to satisfy contingent liabilities for damaged cargo.