DISOBEYING ORDERS.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 951, 25 July 1903, Page 2

DISOBEYING ORDERS.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CAPTAIN AND CREW.

SOME EXTRAORDINARY STATEMENTS.

By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, last nighl

The differences between the captain and the crew of the American ship Emily Reed, which put into Lyttelton in distress on July 12, came before the Lyttelton Police Court this morning, when nine of the erew appeared on remand to answer a charge of disobeying orders, and Captain Baker, master of the vessel, appeared to answer charges of assault preferred against him by five of the men. The Mayor, Mr W.Radcliffe, was on the Bench.

The men gave evidence that the captain had been more or less under the influence of liquor during the voyage from Hobart, and the chief officer had used a revolver to threaten them. The pumps wero going constantly. When she got inside Lyttelton Heads the men refused to lower a boat to let the oaptain go ashore. They were afraid that if he went ashore he would not come back again, and they absolutely refused duty. When the tugboat had brought the ship in they turned to, when promised that the American Consul wouid see them, but it appears from the crew’s evidence that when the Consul came the men were not given an opportunity to state their case, and the men were looked up in the forecastle. Their rations were biscuits and less each day. It was stated that the donkeyman had waved a hammer in getting them into the forecastle, and the chief mate had pointed a revolver at the door. The chief mate had been in charge when the vessel’s head was turned for Lyttelton, as the ship was considered unsafe.

His Worship dismissed the charges against the captain, and the men were discharged. He said it was for the captain to take what steps he thought fit. Mr Radolffe, in giving judgment in the men’s case, said he considered the ease was one which should have been heard before the Stipendiary Magistrate or a Justice with more knowledge of the sea than he had.