THE OAKWORTH CASE.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 64, 14 August 1874, Page 3

THE OAKWORTH CASE.

Captain Edgar master of the British ship Oakworth, was arrested at Deniliquin, New South Wales, according to a telegram received by the detectives on Monday. The warrant issued against Edgar, charging him with neglecting to assist the crew of a boat run down by his ship, was on Monday forwarded to the local police. Measures for proving the identity of the prisoner have been taken. The chief mate of the vessel, Robert Rice, was on Monday night arrested at Sandridge by Detective Mahony, on a charge of having wilfully made a false and fraudulent entry in the log of the British ship Oakworth on the high seas, relative to the collision between the ship and a fishing smack off the Old Head of Kinsale. A warrant had been issued during the day. Mahony, who is a late addition to the force, saw Rice get into a carriage of the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway to go to Sandridge, and, getting in also, fell into conversation with him, and having satisfied himself as to his identity, arrested him when the train got to Sandridge. Information was received by the detectives in Melbourne on Tuesday placing it beyond a doubt that the person arrested by the Deniliquin police was the man wanted, viz., Captain Ed?ar, of the Oakworth. The prisoner was taken before the Bench at Deniliquin, and remanded to Melbourne. The Steam Navigation Board on Wednesday investigated the charges made against Robert Rice, chief officer of the Oakworth, in reference to the collision with a fishing smack, on the coast of Ireland, on March 21st. The line of defence set up was, that

Rice did not hear the cry, " Light ahead," which Immediately preceded the accident, and did all, under the circumstances, that was possible, and that, from the bad terms which existed between him and the captain, he durst not, when the latter came on deck, give any further orders. The 13oard considered the charge of neglecting to send a boat to the assistai ce of the unfortunate occupants of the fishing smack proved, and suspended Rice's certificate for twelve months.