STEAMER IN DEBT

Waipa Post, Volume 43, Issue 3391, 22 December 1931, Page 5

STEAMER IN DEBT

WRIT NAILED TO MAST. £SOOO SOUGHT FOR SALVAGE. (By Telegraph. Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Monday. An event unique in this history of Wellington and which aroused much interest on the waterfront occurred this morning when the Wellington Harbour Board served a writ on the Richardson steamer Pakura claiming £SOOO for salvage. The Pakura struck an unknown rock while approaching the Tora landing on the east coast on November 7. She was towed off the rock the following day by the Harbour Board tug Toia, which then towed her to Wellington. The Pakura was extensively damaged and spent three weeks on the patent slip undergoing repairs. She left here on her first trip since the mishap last Tuesday and returned to Wellington this morning from Gisborne. Shortly after her arrival the writ was solemnly attached to the Pakura’s foremast. The writ was a document of extreme length. The serving of a writ on a ship for debt by nailing it to the vessel’s mainmast is an ancient legal formality which forbids the vessel from leaving port until the debt is discharged without permission of those for whom the writ is served. There have been only four or five cases in New Zealand during the past 25 years, including one at Auckland, one at Wanganui and one at Lyttelton. There were few who frequent the waterfront who did not have a look at the Pakura to-day, and some discussion ensued as to whether the writ was attached to the right mast. During the afternoon all discussion was settled by the writ being taken off the foremast and attached .fjo the mainmast, which, in the case of a twomasted vessel, as is the Pakura, is the after mast. Later in the afternoon the writ was removed from the mast, it having been accepted as served.