HARBOUR TRAGEDY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 30 December 1927, Page 5

HARBOUR TRAGEDY.

JUDICIAL INQUIRY. AN EXPERT’S EVIDENCE. Pi es i Association-Electric Telesrapb-Copjrisbt. SYDNEY, Thursday. The judicial enquiry into the Greyed iffe disaster was continued to-day. Alexander AlePhee Greenlees, naval architect, gave evidence that he examined the stern portion of the Grcycliffe now beached in the harbour, and the submerged portion of the wreck. The latter examination had been made with the aid of a powerful electric light. He found the ferry’s rudder to port, slightly, with the pin in. The rudder could not be turned to starboard with the pin in its present position. The wire pull for lifting or dropping the pin had been carried away, and the tube lead was bent. "Witness said he boarded the Tahiti when she entered the harbour last Tuesday, and made the journey up the harbour. The Tahiti was travelling eight knots, but there was no bow wave, merely a disturbance on the surface of the water, fir Greenlees then explained that the 'displacement wave of the Tahiti on the day of the collision would not have had any effect on the position of the Grcycliffe, nor would it have changed the course of the ferry. He added that he did not think the oncoming vessel would exert any force ahead ef it. Similarly, the greater the speed of the vessel the smaller the angle of displacement. A stationary vessel would exert a force at right angles to the plates. That angle was gradually reduced in accordance with the power and speed with which the vessel was sent through the water. CAPTAIN’S ALLEGATION. THREATENED BY POLICE. SYDNEY", Thursday. In the coroner’s court, the inquest on the Grcycliffe victims was continued. Captain Aldwell, in evidence, said the statement he made to the police in Wellington was not untrue, but it was taken down wrongly. Currents in Sydney Harbour would have no appreciable effect on a steamer the size of the Tahiti. There was.nothing to indicate just prior to the collision that the Grcycliffe had got out of control, lie thought the master of the ferry did not see the Tahiti. In reply to a question by the Coroner, Captain Aldwell said the Tahiti left port after the collision under, the instructions of the" manager of the Union Steam Ship Company. It had not struck him at the time that in the interests of justice the ship should be delayed in port until statements had been obtained from the passengers and crew. Personally, he could not have, given any more definite' information then than now. In reply to a further question by the Coroner, who said it was not intended to be offensive, Captain Aldwell said that all the officers and the pilot were sober at ihe time. Practically all the lahiti s officers were teetotalers. Witness continued that when the police boarded his vessel in Wellington thev asked him to make a statement. He "replied that he did not feel' like making one. They adopted a threatening attitude and he made a statement under compulsion. Witness nas then taken through the statement sentence bv sentence to point out what lie declared to be inaccuracies. Captain Aldwell was questioned on several points, and then admitted that the greater part of the statement was more or less correct.