ENQUIRY RE LOSS OF S.S. TARANAKI.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1500, 6 December 1878, Page 3

ENQUIRY RE LOSS OF S.S. TARANAKI.

FURTHER PARTICULARS.

[By Telegraph.] Tauuanua, December 5. Capt. Malcolm cross-examined by Mr McKcllar —The vessclwentthrough "Hole in the wall" at 4 am. Thelog Was not set then. The distance from there to Slippers is fourteen miles. Previous to the accident we were going at ordinary speed, so there was no reason to alter it. 'J he man at the lookout had orders to keep a good look out. The second officer was on the bridge at the time ot the accident. Soundings would have been no use, as there was nothing on the chart to check them by. If soundings hid been made, and a decaease from thirty to twenty-eight or twentyseven fathoms made, I should have stopped the vessel. The officers and men were sober, and the compasses in good order. We were steering by the bridge compa s. Tho vessel was last swung in November, 1870. bhe was to be Bwung on the first opportunity. S.E. S., ~ S., is the course which has usnally taken me three miles east of Karewa. I have never passed inside Karewa. I use the Admiralty chart, 'lhe Union Company put the latest charts on all their boats. 1 always found the log correct before. The distance run by the log from 8 a.m. to the time of the accident could not be ascertained. We were unable to recover the log, as it got foul of the screw when she struct. I saw the breakers first myself, not the man on the lookout. 1 could not make out tor a moment where we had struck. I hid no idea it was Karewa. The helm hard a starboard would have shelved her off. Had [ put Ihe helm h .rd aport she might have got off, but she might also have struck outlying rocks, and gone down in deep water. Tho Court here adjourned for dinner. Captain Malcolm said—l was not aware at the time that there was any set of tiJe towaros the shoal. The chief officer holds a mas ei-'s certificate, and the second officer has a mate's. The vessel ought to have passed from 2\ to 3 3 miles from Karewa. Ie in only account for the catastrophe by an indraft to the bay. Ido not attach blame to the officers. 1 here were about 3 tons of iron aboard. The boats were all in good order. I did not test the compasses this trip. I had no opportunity on account of the thick weather. 1 have had larger quantities of iron on board without it affecting the compares. Ido not think the look-out man shortsighted. She should have been swung this irip at Wellington. Mr J. A.Wilson, Judge of the Native Lands Court, deposed that the circnl ition of currents and air at sea had been one of his chief studies for years. That tberew is a/strong current se ting in where the Taranaki was lost. He visited Karewa two days after the wreck. The current was from N. and E. to the S. and W. Should think it would affect a vessel outside Karewa at from a mile to » mile and a half an hour. Witness had been set towards the rock himself, in a small boat in a calm. Prom the same quarter a current would be stronger in summer than in winter. It emptied itself at Cape Runaway, and was rmite two knots an hour. He was also rearly wrecked off White Island by a current. He considered a master, knowing other parts of the oast, might be taken by surprise here. The first and second officers confirmed the captain's evidence. Tho chief officer's log-book shows that a precisely similar course wa3 steered on the last trip. ~.,,, -, The Court adjourned till to-day. December b.

The inquiry was continued. Thomas Coons, the look-out man, stated that the weather was so foggy that he could not see more than three lengths ahead of the ship before she struck. Ho he'ped to stow the earpo. Some iron s ish-weitrhts were placed in the fore hold, in front of tho bridge where the compass was placed. He called out " breakers ahead" first. The evidence givn by C. McLean, agent of tbe Bank of New Zealand, showed he did not think the vessel was goicg too fast for tho state of the weather. Sergcnscn the seaman at the wheel from 8 a.m. said he had been at sea since he was twelve years old. Tho second mate said, "I steered the course given."