THE LY-EE-MOON DISASTER THE CAPTAIN COMMITTED FOR TRIAL. THE THIRD OFFICER DISCHARGED. (BY CABLE.-COPYRIGHT.) Sydney, June 15th.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 157, 19 June 1886, Page 7

THE LY-EE-MOON DISASTER THE CAPTAIN COMMITTED FOR TRIAL. THE THIRD OFFICER DISCHARGED. (BY CABLE.- COPYRIGHT.) Sydney, June 15th.

Captain Wkbber, of the Ly-ee-moon, the vessel which was recently wrecked at Groen Cape, has been committed for trial on the charge of manslaughter. The third officer, Mr Fotheringham, was discharged from custody at the request of the Crown Prosecutor. The Third Officer's Statement. The following is the evidence given by Mr Fotheringham at the nautical inquiry : —I was third officer of the Ly-oe-moon. This was my first trip in this company's service. The Coronor here advised the witness that he was not bound to answer any questions he thought would criminate him. Fotheringham replied : lam not afraid of criminating myself in any way. I have not told a lie yet, and I'm not going to tell a lie. It was my watch at the time of the accident. I went on watch at 8 o'clock p m. ; the vessel then was not quite up to Oape Howe. Cape Howe was abeam, distant about three quarters of a mile. I relieved the chief officer at 8 o'clock, and he told me that the captain was in the wheelhouse looking out for the steering. I did not take the watch, because the captain was in charge of the deck. I asked the chief officer for the course when I came on deck at S o'clock. He said, "There is no courao; the captain is coursing the ship from the wheel-house." The chief officer then left the bridge. I was then alone on the upper bridge. The witness Jibyq raised an objection to an inquiry being made unless by a Nautical Court, but proceeded as follows : —I left the bridge to make sure (a minute past S) that the captain was in the wheel-house j I saw Captain Webber then, with the man at tho wheel; I did not speak to him ; I went back at once to the bridge ; I then had no course given me ; the vessel was then steering N.N.E. and N , her head hauling in all tho time. I saw Captain Webber at 8.30 ; he came on the bridge. Up to that time I had not altered the course; he (Captain Webber) had j 1 know this, because when he came up he told me he had ; He said, "Mirk down in bridge book 8.15, Cape Howe abeam,distantonemile." Ididso; hesetthe course,cannot tell you exactly what he said. The effect was, he said, "I want to make a north course by the bridge compass." He also said, " both the compass —wheelhouse~ and bridge—were alike. He and I looked in the bridge compass. Her head then was N., about a degree and a half E. He said, " When I go down I will tell the man in the wheelhouse to steer nothing to eastward, so we shall make you a true N. course," and that he wished to pass within half a mile of Cape Green light, but that he wished to be on deck himself while passing the light so close, and to call him when the light was on the 4 point bearing, or anyway at a quarter to 10 o'clock. He then left me, after being with me about 10 minutes at the outside. I was then exceedingly careful of the course, as I thought we were too near the land. 1 continued to steer true north. I steered north until 12 minutes past 9. I went down to the captain's cabin at 9.13. When I walked up to the cabin to call the captain, who was in hia cabin, not turned in, he was reading. We were then exceedingly close to the light, which I told the captain. I said, " We are getting close up to the light, and wo are exceedingly close to the land." He at once got up, saying, •« All right; I'il look out for her," and stepped out of the door. I returned to the bridge at once, and as I was going up the ladder I saw the captain go in the wheel-house ; when I got on the bridge I went to the compass, expecting to see the ship hauled off the land, but the course had not been altered. I did nothing for about five minutes but watch her head, expecting every minute to sea her go off the land to the eastward. I thought something must be wrong, and that the captain could not be there, so I sang out through the speaking tube, "la the captain in the wheel-house?" The captain replied "Yes." I said nothing more, but went and stood by the telegraph. I could not cay to five minutes afterwards, but about that time I felt her strike, and I put the telegraph "full speed astern." I had my hand on the telegraph at the time. Up to then the captain had not been on the upper bridge. He came on then at once. I gave no order whatever until I felt her grating. I was not in charge at the time. The captain ran straight to the telegraph when she struck and stopped the engines. He put it to "stop." The ship was nearly in two. The boiler burst up, but I heard no explosion. The steam whistle was going from the concussion, and the captain told me to I try to stop the whistle. The captain was on deck ab 9 12, diiectly I called him. We were then about three and a-half miles from the reef on which we struck, going 12 knots an hour. It was seventeen minutea from the time I cailed the captain till the vessel struck. The weather was the same as when the captain left the bridge, wind about W.N.W., with a strong easterly swell. It was a clear night. I could not see breakers ahead at 9.12., when I called the captain. I could not see we were running into danger, but we were, I considered, too close to land. I don't know the coast, and had not seen a chart. A chart was in the ship, but not available for the officers. I had not asked the captain for a chart, but I had the second officer, who said there was no chart to be seen. He had been some time on the ship,and had not been able to get sight of one. I called the captain because I had been accustomed heretofore to sail deep sea ships, and, therefore, I could not be easy in my mind at the time, as we were too near the land. We are not allowed, according to custom, to alter the ship's course without the captain's orders, even if

we are in charge, without informing the captain of the fact. The instructions are that we must not alter the course without informing the^ captain, but of course if we are running into a ship or on a rock we should alter the course. The general rule is that if we alter we must at once inform the captain. What 1 fooled me was that the captain told me he intended to paas within half a mile of the light. We struck a quarter of a mile from the shore. I considered that our course at the time when I called the captain would be a dangerous one to pursue when we neared the Cape, and so I called the captain in time to alter it, and that is why I did not alter the course myself. The vessel struck the reef about 9.27 p.m. Captain Webber knew I M r as inexperienced in the coast from the time I joined his vessel. I sang out to the captain down the speaking tube. The .course at the time was not altered, neither was the course altered by the captain after I called him first, up to the time I spoke to him in the wheelhouse. That would be about the Bpace of ten minutes. How can I tell how long before the vessel struck that I saw her course alter a little ? I think about two minutes, then the course was eastward. Putting the helm hard aport would make the course east. I have never been up the coast in any other vessel except as passenger. The light was burning brightly at the lighthouse at this time. J. Fotheringham (recalled) said : I am positive that the captain said, " I wish to pass within |half-a-mile of the lighthouse," not that wo could go within half-a-mile ; I am certain it was that. I believe it was the captain's voice I heard answer me from the wheelhouse up the tube, That waß, I should say, about seven minutes before she struck. Any one in the wheelhouse could see the course we were steering and the light, When the captain went on the bridge he did not say, " Why did you let the ship get in so cloee, and why did you not call me sooner ?" I did not say I could go in any closer, By Mr Rawlinson : I did not hear Captain Webber's statement and cannot crossexamine him. lam only a poor man and I have lost my all, but I won't be blamed for losing the poor souls. By the Coroner : If the captain saya that you called him only two minutes before the ship struck, is that true ? Witness : It is not true. It is a downright lie.