WARATAH INQUIRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 941, 14 January 1911, Page 3

WARATAH INQUIRY.

SOME REVELATIONS. AN UNSTEADY VESSEL. London, Jan, 11. There was more sensational evidence at the resumption of the inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the Waratah. The captain and chief officer of the Clan Mclntyre stated that the Waratah had no list, but Lament, an apprentice, said she was pitching and leaning like a yacht with a list to starboard. Mr Shanks, Lund’s superintendent engineer, stated that the coal consumption of 15 tons a day more on the second voyage was due to the distillation of drinking water aud weather conditions. He had not heard of any difficulty in coaling at Sydney owing to the ship being too tender, but admitted receiving Captain Ilbery’s letter to that effect. Counsel elicited the fact that when the vessel was built at Glasgow it was considered unsafe to coal there beyond sufficient for the voyage to London. The affidavit ot Walter Merry, of Adelaide, stated he was warned by the sailors of the first voyage not to sail, as the Waratah nearly turned turtle at the wharf. The officers of the steamer Clan Maclntyre declared that if the Waratah’s steering gear failed on the course she was steering she would become unmanageable, and be in grave danger of foundering in the trough of the sea. Lament said he was on bad terms with the officers Shanks said it was not true that the vessel listed so heavily on the voyage from Glasgow as to frighten the officers. Counsel quoted a letter of the engineer to the owners stating that Captain Ilbery asked him to take sufficient coal to drive the vessel. Shanks declared that neither the owners, the builders, nor himself suggested utilising the space on the spar deck for coal. Counsel produced a plan showing the space marked as coal bunkers, aud witness replied he never regarded it as a permanent bunker. It might have been some assistance in coaling to place a small quantity on the spar deck. He had not heard anything about the vessel’s instability. Asked why the coal was not placed on the spar deck at Glasgow, witness said it was not considered safe. He was quite certain the decks did not leak badly. Captain Moore, of the steamer Insiza, said he saw four objects like bodies floating near the African coast on August nth. Bad weather prevented their examination. FAULTY LIFEBOATS. London, Jan. 12. The evidence at the Waratah inquiry included a letter from Embrose, quartermaster on the Waratah’s last voyage, to his parents, describing her a splendid sea boat. Chapman, engineer on the first voyage, declared she was steady aud seaworthy. Sharp, who was on the steamer on the first voyage, said the lifeboats were continually leaking aud had to be patched up. He left the ship at Sydney because he was frightened, aud would not return to her for a thousand pounds. The lifeboats were unfit for use. The Chief Officer predicted to him that the ship would be somebody’s coffin. He heard the boatswain sav the boats were unsafe, and that the ship would go to the bottom in a storm. Pinel, carpenter’s mate stated the lifeboats were made of green wood and opened out in the tropics. It was impossible to repair them, as there was no material onboard with which to do it.