EXPERIENCE TEACHES.

Observer, Volume XXVIII, Issue 26, 14 March 1908, Page 2

EXPERIENCE TEACHES.

Berthing Vessels Athwart the Tide. IT is early yet to attempt to measure the extent of the Harbour Board's folly in dispensing with the wharf tees, and adopting a policy of berthiDg vessels athwart the tide. Experience teaches. The experience of the Italian barque Geni during the storm on Saturday and Sunday, however, constitutes a sufficient warning. It fortunately happened that on this occasion there was only one vessel in this awkward predicament. But other fctorms will come, as they are accustomed to do, and we may yet witness a catastrophe and loss of valuable property in this harbour that will arouse the Harbour Board to some sense of prudence and responsibility.

The story of the experience of the iron barque Geni is already well known. When the easterly gale set in on Friday night, the vessel was berthed broadside on to the Railway Wharf, on its eastern side. Of course, it was hopeless to attempt to get her out of her awkward predicament. Except for the fact that she was in deep water, she was practically on a lee shore, and any individual with a knowledge of the sea knows what that means. For forty-eight hours, the officers and crew laboured might and main to save their vessel from foundering. In a landlocked harbour, she was in constant danger of being smashed against the pier to which she was moored. Her fenders were literally ground to matchwood by the bumping of the vessel, and when the gale had ended and all danger was over, her iron sides presented an instructive spectacle. Many of her plates were dented to a serious extent, and though some of them may be straightened and repaired, it is probable that others will require to be replaced by new plates. The damage is estimated at some hundreds of pounds.

It maj be taken for granted that the Harbour Board will not accept any responsibility for this damage, it may also be taken for granted that the Board is not legally liable. But its moral responsibility to the shipowner is a serious one. When a vessel is berthed at a wharf in the port, the master is fairly warranted in assuming that the berth is a safe one, and that, in building the wharf, due consideration has been given to the prevailing winds and tides That, however, is what many experienced people hold has not been done. Thirty-five or forty years ago, it was found dangerous to berth vessels athwart the tide, in view of the fact that the storms were chiefly from the east and west, and consequently the system of tees was adopted. Before the tees were built, it was a common thing for a dozen or more vessels to be sunk at their berths on the windward side of the wharf during the progress of a storm. By the abandonment of the tees, we are returning to the old system now.

It happened fortunately, during the recent storm, that there was only this one vessel on the windward Bide of the Railway Wharf. But when the tees are taken away, and both sides of the

wharf are lined with shipping, we may expect stirring times in the harbour with the advent of an easterly or a westerly gale. In this instance, if the Geni had been a ten thousand-ton steamer instead of a small barque, the public would have had a parallel to the Mamari casualty to talk about. However, the Harbour Board has turned deaf ears to every warning that has hitherto been uttered. It will probably refuse to listen, or to be warned by the lesson of the recent storm, even now. But a crisis must come when the Board will be only too glad to listen, and to take measures to repair the blunders of the past. One of these blunders is the removal of the tees and. the berthing of the shipping athwart the tide. Another is the congestion of the ferry traffic in a corner on the western side of the Queen-street wharf, where the seething backwash, in a westerly gale, will make it impossible to work the ferry steamers.