LOSS OF TANKER

Evening Star, Issue 22450, 22 September 1936, Page 9

LOSS OF TANKER

CASE AGAINST MANAGERS DISMISSED DISASTER IN PACIFIC RECALLED Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, September 19. Mr Justice Greaves-Lord, without calling evidence for the defence, directed the jury that there was no case against Sydney Graham and Ralph Hollond, who were charged with sending the British Ship La Crescenta to sea in an unseaworthy condition, and conspiring to incite the master to overload her. The defendants were discharged. [The British tanker La Crescenta left Port San Luis (California) on November 24, 1934, for Yokohama, where she was due on December 24. She was lost on the voyage, and the crew of 29 perished. The British vessel Athelbeach passed through pools of oil in the Pacific at the last given position of the La Crescenta. The ship was of 5,880 tons, and was managed by Harrison and Dixon Ltd. She was built in 1923. In the House of Commons on March 26, 1935, Mr Arthur Greenwood in referring to loss of life at sea, mentioned the La Crescenta. He made no charge against the owners, but said that letters written by members of the crew on the voyage declared that there had been a breakdown, and a fire in the ship; and that ‘ ‘ the vessel was a proper old ramshackle.” The captain wrote that the ship was getting pretty old, and that there was always trouble through breakdowns. Lord _ Merivale, the Wreck Commissioner, in giving judgment on the cause of the loss of the La Crescenta, held that the causes of the loss were contributed to by the wrongful acts and defaults of the owners and managers. A contributory cause, the commissioner held, was the overloading of the ship, so that when her engines were disabled she inevitably sank in the face of precipitous seas. He had no doubt that when the ship left port she was more than lOin deeper than she should have been. Lord Merivale also said: “ The causes of the Joss were contributed to by the wrongful acts and defaults of the owners of the La Crescenta and of Sydney Graham, registered manager of the ship, and of Ralph Henry Hollond, who gave evidence before us as manager of the shipping' department of Harris and Dixon Ltd.”] •