ARREST OF A VESSEL.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1557, 28 September 1912, Page 5

ARREST OF A VESSEL.

IN WELLINGTON. WRIT NAILED TO THE MAST. On tho main mas!r—or what "is left of •it—of the barquentino Waupmui, now lying alongside the I.'ipitea Wharf, is a document which has been seldom soph oil u vessel in Wellington Harbour. It is an innocent-looking piece of plain while paper, on which is typewritten, in legal i'orm, a claim for salvage. Soaking wet as it is, it seems to have "arrested the barquentinc.

Tin; writ of arrest was served yesterday afternoon at • Wie instance of the owners, master, and crew of the steamer Arapawa, and is a claim for salvage. It will bo remembered that tho Wanganui was dismasted off Waugahui on September 21, and, after drifting and sail' ing down the coast, was reported disabled off Sinclair Head by the K.ipiti last Saturday afternoon. The Arapawa, belonging to Mr. Williams, of tho Coastal Steamship Company, went out and picked tho Wanganui up about 15 miles off tho Heads, and brought her into port at about S a.m. on Sunday, last. It is understood that (lie owners of tho* Wanganui offered the Coastal Shipping Company .C3OO to meet the salvage claim. This amount apparently has been thought insufficient, and lienco the writ. It is stated that the claim is for ,£ISOO. From inquiries made yesterday it was ascertained that the case is likely to come into Court. ■ .

In the olden days of "Bully" Hayes and others, arresting vessels is said to have been a fairly common occurrence, but in recent, years this procedure has figured somewhat as a novelty. The most rfceent cases of the kind arc the arrest of the barque Bolsran at Lyttelton oil May 14, 1910, and the General Grant treasure expedition steamer, Wairoa, at Dunedm in June last. , In the Solgran's case the matter m lbspute was a question of a salvage claim by Frank. Merton Calvert, master mpriner, of Hobart, and in ( tho ease of the Wairoa it was one in which tho question .of tho cost of repairs was in dispute, ________