VICE ADMIRALTY COURT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5035, 14 May 1877, Page 3

VICE ADMIRALTY COURT.

Saturday, May 12. (Before the Worshipful James Prondorgast, Esq., Judge.) IN THE .MATTER OK THE STEAMSHIP TAUPO,

Mi-. Travers for the owner of the hulk Eli Whitney ; Mr. Chapman (instructed by Izard and Bell) for the master and owners of the Taupo. Thomas Swede deposed: I am master of the schooner Reliance. I remember the night of the 23rd and the morning of the 24th February hist. It was that night blowing very hard from the north-west, being at times especially violent and gusty; and it was very dark. I remember whore the hulk Eli Whitney was lying. My vessel was lying at the breastwork', and from off my deck I could see the hulk. I last saw her about twenty minutes past twelve. About that time I heard a steamer whistling, which was about leaving. I have since learned that it was the Taupo. About this time I saw the hulk; it was dark, but I could make her out. I did not see the steamer leaving the wharf, and I know nothing of the collision. To Mr. Chapman: I had been noticing the night. Sometimes it was darker than on others.

Alexander Chambers deposed : I am master of the schooner Clio. I remember the night of the 23rd and the morning of the 24th of February last. The wind was blowing very hard that night, coming from N.W. to W.N.W., and very squally, About midnight I was on the deck of the Clin, which had been moored near the foundry, but which had dngged her anchors till she got near the end of the wharf, where she was at the time I speak of—some 109 yards from the wharf. I remember that the hulk Eli Whitney was lying to the eastward of us. I know the light on Somes Island. It was variable that night, and bore from us right across the midships of the hulk. I saw the Taupo leave the northern end of the outer T of the wharf, and when she started the captain canted her head seaward, she being fastened at the stern by a line. We had a boat attached to our schooner by a painter about fifty feet long. The steamer on leaving the wharf came very close to us, and passed so close under our stern that we had to take our boat in. I did not see the steamer change her course after she passed us. I thought the course she was taking would not clear her of the hulk. Immediately after she passed us I heard somebody on the forecastle of the Taupo—l took it to be the mate—call out, “ The hulk is ahead,” and then the telegram bell rang, and three seconds afterwards I heard her go into the hulk. The wind was blowing very heavily at this time. There was nothing in the shape of an obstacle to passing astern of the hulk. There was sufficient room, for the only vessel near the hulk Eli Whitney was the hulk India, which was a good distance away. After the collision the Taupo dropped slowly astern of the hulk, and remained stationary for about five minutes. She had stopped steaming, and naturally came up to the wind in about five minutes more. I made her out as steaming slowly ahead, and her lights were in view for about ten minutes. I then went down into my cabin to see a sick child and give it its medicine, and when I came on deck five minutes afterwards the hulk had sunk. I could only see her mast. To Mr. Chapman : The steamer might have shifted her head after leaving us ; her head might have been one way or the other ; I could not tell exactly. ‘The Court then adjourned.