THE RANGATIRA INQUIRY

Southland Times, Issue 22855, 2 April 1936, Page 6

THE RANGATIRA INQUIRY

Rehearing Begun PLACE WHERE VESSEL STRUCK EVIDENCE HEARD (United Press Association.) Wellington, April 1. The rehearing ordered by the Minister of Marine (the Hon. P. Fraser) into the mishap to the express steamer Rangatira was opened to-day. The Court consists of the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers), with Captains Worrall and Bacon as nautical assessors. .Mr P. B. Cooke, K.C., and with him Mr E. K. Kirkaldie, appeared for Captain W. D. Cameron, master of the Rangatira, and the Chief Officer (Mr T. E. Bevan), and the Solicitor-Gen-eral, Mr H. H. Cornish, K.C., and with him Mr N. A. Foden, appeared for the Minister of Marine. Mr Herd appeared for the wireless operator (Mr Hudson) and Mr C. G. White watched proceedings for the Union Steam Ship Company and Mr J. F. B. Stevenson on behalf of the Wellington Harbour Board. At the outset Mr Cooke submitted that the Court had no jurisdiction because the section under which the rehearing was ordered was ultra vires under the New Zealand Legislature in so far as it purported to confer on the Minister power to order a rehearing. He suggested, however, that as the argument would take some time it could be left till after the evidence had been heard. This course was agreed to. In opening, Mr Cornish suggested that all the critical matters were contained in the following three questions: (1) Was the master justified in all the circumstances in taking it for granted that his landfall was Taurakirae? (2) Was he in the circumstances justified in continuing at full speed after sighting land? (3) Did the wireless operator carry out his instructions? Mr Cornish also stated that he proposed to call evidence to establish the precise place where the Rangatira struck. A Marked Rock. Enroco Alberino, an Italian fisherman at Island Bay for the past 21 years, through an interpreter said he was fishing about Karori Rock a few days after the Rangatira mishap when he saw a rock marked in a way he had not seen before. He described this as a white mark five feet long on one side of the rock. This was devoid of seaweed. There were also loose pieces of rock. He had not seen the rocks so lying before or after a storm. He gave the position of the rock as a mile and a quarter from the Karori Light and a mile from the station. The point was identified as Tongue Point on a chart two weeks later. Captain Stuart went in witness’s launch to see the rock. Witness also said the tide was low. Tire mark on the rock was five feet under the surface. The rock was only visible above water when the sea was calm.

Captain W. W. Stuart, examiner of masters and mates in the Marine Department, said that on March 5 he was instructed to accompany an Italian fisherman to the locality of Tom’s Rock. His instructions were to make a general investigation of the surrounding locality and if possible fix the position of this submerged rock. Shoal conditions were favourable and he fixed the position by horizontal sextant angles of Karori Lighthouse, Tongue Point and Sinclair Head; and Sinclair Head and Baring Head. The sextant angles showed the position to be two cables from the charted position of Tom’s Rock.

Captain Stuart said his investigation consisted of endeavouring to examine the shoal. The weather was not of the best to obtain soundings, but he would estimate the least depth over the shoal as 10 feet. He gave the nearest land as 1600 yards. His investigation was made at half flood tide. Witness explained that the shoreward side of the rock was covered with seaweed, but the seaward side was clear of growth and his observation revealed quite a number of clear pieces of rock face, perhaps dirty whitish in colour. From tile position of this rock a white house ashore with a red roof was clearly visible at the mouth of the Karori Stream. About 100 yards inshore there was a rock awash. The white house mentioned was slightly over a mile from the rock. The rock was really a rocky shoal of approximately 30 yards in extent. In reply to Mr Cooke witness said the marks on the rock were scattered about and separated by a few feet. There might have been other marks deeper down, but the marks to seaward were the only obvious ones. He drew the conclusion that the white was broken rock. He thought it peculiar that that part of the rock should be clear of marine growth, and a closer examination showed it was clear of some of its original rock. Witness said the fisherman took him to the shoal, but apart from indicating the shoal did not help him find the marks. Position Plotted. Captain Cameron, asked to place what he thought was his position at two minutes past six when he first sighted land, was occupied for some time in the witness box in plotting it out. The Chief Justice asked if it had not been requested before to which Mr Kirkcaldie replied: “Nowhere.”

His Honour remarked that that was strange as he thought it would have been one of the first things asked for.

When Captain Cameron had indicated his position some six miles off Tauralcirae it was pointed out that at the previous inquiry he estimated himself to be two to 2J miles off when he sighted land. This brought explanations that the position plotted was the position he thought he was in at two minutes past six, just before he sighted land. When he saw land at two minutes past six it was two miles away. The Court rose at this stage, and on the Chief Justice’s suggestion the positions the master thought he was in were to be accurately worked out by him in the meantime. When the Court resumed Mr Kirkcaldie put in two photographs of Sinclair Head and three photographs of Taurakirae Head, all taken from the same angle. Captain J. Ritchie, master of the Tamahine, said he had taken a photograph of Sinclair Head, his bearing at the time being east by north. With Captain Cameron in charge he had sailed over the Lyttelton-Wellington course many times with a southerly wind and heavy sea. Captain Cameron’s practice was to keep off to the eastward of Cape Campbell. Returning to the point being discussed when the Court took the luncheon adjournment, Mr Cornish asked Captain Cameron to mark on a chart the position he thought he was in immediately he sighted land. Asked to give his bearing and the distance from land, Captain Cameron placed the bearing at north, 50 east, and the dis-

tance at from 21 to 2% miles off Taurakirae. Bearing When Land Was Sighted. On the assumption that the rock spoken of by the Italian fisherman and Captain Stuart was the rock where the Rangatira struck, Captain Cameron was next asked for his position when he actually saw land. Witness, after his Honour had reminded him of the data that the Court had been given and after having put the question again, marked the point on the chart. This point, he said, was about 11 miles from his bearing at 6.2 a.m. Captain Cameron said that although he was five miles off the course he thought he was on he did not take a bearing when he first saw Taurakirae. He assumed as a certainty that the ebb stream would make, because there had been no weather to alter the conditions. On two previous trips he relied on a line of soundings because they were so steady. The Solicitor-General asked Captain Cameron whether, when he assumed his position was two miles off Taurakirae Head, he did not feel obliged to revise his position off Cape Campbell. The Chief Justice: What is the use of going down to Cape Campbell again when you bring the ship to within two and a half miles of land? The real question involved in this case is whether he should have gone on in the circumstances that existed. The Solicitor-General: Steering the course he did and allowing for the conditions he believed existed he could not have been off Taurakirae where he thought he was. The Chief Justice: He was allowing for the tide carrying him in a certain direction and he thought at two minutes past six, when he saw land, that it would carry him five miles off his magnetic course to the east, instead of which, as it turned out, he was carried about six miles to the westward. That is the crucial question. Captain Cameron said he had never been carried before to a line west of Lyall Bay in thick weather, despite the variety of the tides in Cook Strait. The Court adjourned till to-morrow morning.