QUEEN OF THE SOUTH WRECK.

Colonist, Volume LXI, Issue 15075, 19 May 1919, Page 6

QUEEN OF THE SOUTH WRECK.

COURT OF INQUIRY

MAGNETOS AMONG THE CARGO

ALLEGED TO HAVE DEFLECTED

SHIP'S COMPASSES

[United Press Association.]

Wellington, May 17. An inquiry was held' to-day into the wreck of the'steamer Queen of the South.

Mr O'Regan appeared for the Seamen's Union, Mr Myers for the owners, and Mr K. Kirkcaldie for tho master.

Captain J. 11. Owen, master of tho Queen of tho South, detailed the vessel's movements until she'istruck at 5.15 a.m. on the 10th inst. The compasses on the Queen of t'-o South were adjusted, hist May, ivlion they showed a deviation of 2deg. east, hut witness had found that the £>hi[) steered a good course in,spite of this deviation." On the night of tho occurrence the vessel would come under the influence of the flood tide half-way between Penrarrow and Cape Campbell. Its effect would !be to set him to the west;. Tlie course-lie set should have carried'tho vessel 9 or ]0 miles off Cape Campbell. There were two cases of magnetos aboard the Queen of tile South. Thsy were electrical instruments,' charged v/itn magnetism. It was two days after the wreck that he learned they were on the ship. Ho iliouglit they were on top ■of t!ie;.osvri;-o. Viuv top of the hatch was about 10ft from-the-binnacle. He had .since experimented'with a magneto, and found that it would deflect a compass at a distance of from Bft to TOft.

Mr Kirkcaldie gave a demonstration to the Court of the extraordinary influence of a single magneto on a compass. Captain Owen said that the rock which the vessel struck was about 7^miles out of the course which he set;. Even if he had known that there were magnetos abroad, he would not have known that they could affect a -compass. In reply to Mr 0' Regan, witness, said there was no look-out man posted when the ship struck. Such a look-out man could not have seen more than the officeen the bric!t;o. On a small boat a lookout man was unnecessary. Captain Owen said that when the vessel struck he could not see the reef or the land.

Frank Lawton," mate of the Queen of the South, said that when the vessel struck he reckoned he was 9 or 10 miles o(F the land. He was about to call tlie captain soon after the fog came down, but the vessel struck the reef before he did so. .

Captain Clifford, adjuster of compasses, gave evidence with regard to tne alleged deflection of the compasses. He said that such cargo as magnetos should be not less than 50ft from a ship's compass. From his experiments It was reasonable to suppose that tlie magnetos had affected the compasses on the Queen of the South.

The court announced fhat its decision would be given on Monday morning.

The names of Foxton and "Tlie Queen" were synonymous, for the reason that the little steamer had been running between Wellington and the port mentioned since 188&. Owned 'by the Queen Shipping Company (Captains Harvey, Wills, Signal, and Levin and Co.), the Queen of the South first came to Wellington from Sydney in 1889. She was then commanded oy Captain E. J. Harvey, who liad charge of the vessel right up to March last, w^hen he resigned. The Queen of the South was built or iron in 1877 at Paisley Scotland, and j was of 198 tons gross and 121 tons net.