PUT ABOARD SHIP

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19980, 4 July 1939, Page 14

PUT ABOARD SHIP

RECALCITRANT SEAMEN GRIEVANCES AIRED CONDITIONS IN VESSEL MAGISTRATE’S ADVICE (P(>l- Pross Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. Twelve members of the crew ol the Cape Horn who delayed the sailing of their vessel from Lyttelton by leaving hel\ were convicted and ordered to lie placed on board their ship, and to pay costs, in the Magistrates Couit yesterday, before Mr. E. C. Levvoy, S.M. The accused were Robert Sneddon. Josef Torjusen, Geoffrey William Unger, Christian Sorensen, Stanley Bryson, John George Samplson, ordinary seamen; Charles Robert Laird, Johannes Leppik, Angus McDonald, able seamen; Frederick Leonard Dawson, Alexander dimming, wipers, and Ahti Aro, boatswain. They pleaded not guilty to a charge that, having signed on the articles of the British ship Cape Horn at Newcastle-on-Tyne, they were absent without leave when the vessel was about to leave Lyttelton and that they refused to return to their ship.

Mr. R. A". Barrer appeared for the men and Mr. J. H. Upham for the owners. In evidence, Kenneth Malcolm Mackenzie, captain of the Cape Horn, said that a deputation from the men had waited on him while the vessel was at Lyttelton, suggesting that, because of his recent promotion, the ship was undermanned. He had consulted the superintendent of the Board of Trade at Lyttelton on this matter, and had communicated the answer that the ship was not undermanned. Refusal To Go To Sea When he met the crew on Saturday, June 24, in. the ship’s saloon, he had ordered all the crew to be on board at 5 p.m., as the vessel was scheduled to leave for Dunedin at 6 p.m. The men then refused to go to sea unless they were granted New Zealand rates of pay and conditions. At 6 p.m. the defendants had absented themselves and the vessel was unable to leave port. At 7 p.m. the assistance of the police had been called in an effort to locate, them. Later, through Thomas Marton, secretary of the Lyttelton branch of the New Zealand Seamen’s Union, he had arranged to meet the men at the Trades Hall. He had ordered them separately and collectively to go back to their ship, but they had refused. To Mr. Barrer, the witness said that the Cape Horn had been chartered to the Union Steam Ship Company by a Scottish firm on December 11, 1938. The crew was being paid the full national scale laid down for British ships. He admitted tha'tthe bathroom had neither bath, shower or basin, and that only salt water was laid on., The men ate where they slept and provided their own utensils and bedding. He knew that complaints had been made about the food, but since he had taken over command, on June 20, none had been made to him and instructions had been given for the men to be supplied with the same food as the officers. The accommodation was the same as that provided in other ships of the same type. Each man had had an opportunity of inspecting the quarters before he signed his contract. Undermining; N.Z. Standards

Thomas Martin, secretary of the Lyttelton branch of the Seamen’s Union, said that the chief objection to the rates of pay and. conditions in the Cape Horn was that they were undermining New Zealand standards. For an able seaman, the difference in wages was about £lO monthly. ■Mr. Barrer submitted that, in view of the appalling conditions, the magistrate should exercise his discretion and not make an order for the men’s return to the vessel.

Mr. Upham said that if the men had given 48 hours’ notice they could not have been ordered to return to their ship. They had not acted through proper channels to have their complaints investigated. Pie asked for no penalty other than that the defendants should pay expenses and be put on board. “The defendants have brought before the court certain matters which may or may not be consistent with our ideas of what is fit and proper in New Zealand,” said the magistrate, “.but they have signed articles, apparently passed and accepted by the Board of fftssade.” die remarked that it was significant that no complaints had been made at Auckland or Wellington. He suggested that the men should return to England, sign off, and make their complaints to the proper authorities. The Cape Horn put into the stream yesterday afternoon, and the men were later placed aboard under a police escort. The vessel departed at 4.45 p.m. for Melbourne. It was originally intended that the Cape Horn should complete her New Zealand discharge at Dunedin, but because of the delay she was sent direct to Melbourne.