THE PENGUIN INQUIRY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 503, 10 May 1909, Page 4

THE PENGUIN INQUIRY.

The finding of the Appeal Court endorsing the' decision arrived at by; the Board of/Inquiry into the wreck of. the steamer Penguin accompanied with heavy, loss-of-life, will be generally endorsed by. those who have followed the evidence giv/jn. Various circumstances were in favour of the commander of. the ill-fated vessel, and the most that skilled advocacy could make of these was made. A. certain amount of mystery shrouded the actual cause of the wreck, and at the appeal tho theory was put forward that the .steamer was lost through striking some 'partly-submerged object, probably floating wreckage. But. the Court appears to have had.no hesitation in coming to the conclusion that the vessel struck on or near Tom's Rock, and the -circumstances' point'.to this view being the correct one. This being so, the finding of tho Court that Captain Nay> cob was guilty, "not of a more error of

judgment, but of conduct amounting to a wrongful default in not putting to sea and thus running upon a safe course some time before 10 o'clock," was inevitable. Captain Naylor is stated to be a careful and skilled commander, with an excellent record, and it seems probablo that the weather conditions on,the night of the wreck were,exceptional; but no one reading the reasoning of the assessors who sat: with ; Me. Justice Cooper in connection with the appeal can doubt the soundness of the viows\ laid down in the Court's judgment. The pen-, alty .imposed upon Captain Naylor may appear a severo one', becauso it probably means to him much more than the actual loss of his certificate for the time specified; but we cannot, see how any lighter pena}ty could reasonably have been inflicted. The interests of the public demand that the,grave responsibility resting on commanders of vessels, upon the safety of which many lives are dependent, should be' fully recognised; and sympathy with.the individual must not bo permitted to interfere with what is obviously a necessary though painful duty. Had Captain Naylor's past record been less oxcellent than : it was, the penalty imposed by the Court of Inquiry would not,have met the needs.of the occasion.