DORSET HELD UP.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17030, 2 May 1923, Page 9

DORSET HELD UP.

FIREMEN REFUSE DUTY. As the result of the fire men on the overseas steamer Dorset refusing duty | just prior to her sailing; yesterday alter- , noon the vessel was held up and ( twenty-one members of the stokehold j crew found themselves in the police I cells last night. The- vessel was to have made her j departure from Lyttelton about 4 p.m. At that hour three or four firemen I were missing from the ship at the j iol: call. Twenty-one of the remaining twenty-four firemen assembled on the deck and refused to take the ship away from tile wharf unless the men missing were placed on hoard. Endeavours were made by the second engineer to get- the men back to the ship after they had descended the gangway io the wharf, hut he was unsuccessful. The men were later informed that if { they joined their ship the vessel would f anchor in the stream and there await the arrival of the missing men who j would, on being found, be placed on a motor launch and taken to the Dorset, as is customary whenever a man is left behind. However, they refused this Captain Somers-Yine then went down oil to the wharf and endeavoured to induce the men to return on. board but they would not budge. He then told them that lie would give them a last chance and. that if they did not go on board he would order the gangway to be hoisted and the ship would proceed into Lhe stream. This course was adopted. About o p.m. the firemen concerned proceeded along Norwich Quay, arm in arm, singing and attracting considerable attention. As they marched they told passers-by that \‘ they had downed tools ” and the Dorset had gone without them. The men made their way to tin .British and Foreign Sailors’ Society, where they took possession of the reading room. When a reporter visited the building he found one man asleep and the others having a “ sing song.” a member of the company playing the accompaniments. Warrants were issued at- the instance of the master of t-be Dorset and some seven of the men. who had separated from their mates, were quietly arrested. About 0 p.m. a raid was made by the Lyttelton police force on the British and Foreign Sailors’ Institute and the remaining fourteen men were taken under escort to the police station and locked up.