SEAMEN'S STRIKE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3193, 18 September 1917, Page 5

SEAMEN'S STRIKE

— +■■'. ■. " " NO FRESH DEVELOPMENTS. There is nothing new to report respecting tne seamen's strike, whicn ia keeping the '"mosquito fleet" of; Wellington idle. (Both, the Seanien'6 Union and the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Ship- ' (owners' federation held meetings yeeberiday afternoon.. ' ' -. ■ One siiipmaster, who probably knows Jhe Strait as well, if not a degree better, than any other officer trading out of (Wellington, is at a complete loss to ■understand Mr. W. T. Young's peculiar ptatement anent the Penguin, uhich he is quoting in a. way he Iwlieves is calculated to 6howhow easy it ie for .narine "disasters to occur no matter what lookout is kept. In his statement Mr. Young is reported to' have 6aid; "In. fhis case some 75 lives were sacrificed, notwith16landing that there was an. efficient lookput, with a man at the wheel und an pifiter and the master on the bridge, and ."with a light astern, one on each, counter, iirid one on tho bow. If such a disaster could happen, under these circumstances, ihow much easier was it for one to occur Vith only two meson deck in the ship »-Tne officer and the man at the wheel." Our informant says TTiat if Mr. Young thinks all the lights he : mentions—four in a?i—are visible from tho vicinity of fl'om's Eock—where the Penguin is aspunied to have struck—he is very ignor-. ant of the lighting of the Strait at the time of the disaster. As a matter of fact, the shipmaster enid, there is in clear •weather only one light visible from Tom'e ißock—The Brothers—which is just opened out. The Pencarrow lightit. shut out by , Sinclair. Head, and Cape Campbell—2B miles away—is not visible. On a »ery clear, night the loom of tho Cape Campbell light may be picked up occasionally. The steamer Alexander, which has just had a", completo overhaul on the Patent Slip, was to huvo been towed to Nelson by the Regulus on Saturday, tut when it came near the hour of departure the seamen on the Regulue said they would not go to sea with the Alexander in tow, -jid tho latter is still in port. Tho John,' which has nat bPop to Wellington 6ince the outbreak cf the tioublc, has been hold up at dyttsiton.