LOSS OF BRITISH STEAMER

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1930, Page 15

LOSS OF BRITISH STEAMER

HATCH COVERS SHATTERED. USE OF STEEL RECOMMENDED. The,loss of the steamship. Radyr, belonging to a Cardiff firm, with all hands off Hartland Point on December 7, when carrying a cargo of coal to Bordeaux, was the subject of a Board of Trade inquiry. Tn its judgment, delivered recently, Mr. Hugh Jones said the Court held that the cause of the loss of the vessel and all hands on board was the large influx of water into two or more of the holds owing to the force.of heavy seas breaking a number of the batches during, weather of exceptional violence; that the breaking in of the hatches was caused by the inferior quality and defective condition of some of the hatch covers; and that in the heavy weather experienced, the large area, of hatchways in proportion to the area, of the deck constituted a serious, danger, and exposed the whole of the hatches to exceptional strain. All the circumstances tended to show that the disaster to the Radyr, with the most regrettable loss of the lives of all those on board, was sudden and overwhelming. The Court was of opinion that definite provisions and stipulations should be. made in the. specification foltimber ordered for, and used in, the couand exposed hatchways on sea-going struction of hatch covers, fitted in large vessels, and recommended that where covert; were made of wood they, should be of high-grade, straight-grained timber, free from knots, shakes, and sap. It was, however, strongly urged that the use of steel in the construction of t-uch covers should be considered. It was further recoininended that there should be more frequent periodical surveys of the hatch covers of such vessels.