CREW REFUSE TO SAIL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26635, 4 December 1947, Page 6

CREW REFUSE TO SAIL

STEAMER DELAYED AT LYTTELTON VALUABLE CARGO FOR BRITAIN

P.A. CHRISTCHURCH, Dec. 3. The crew of the Algonquin Park has refused to take the ship out of Lyttelton until alleged unsatisfactory conditions are remedied. The snip, a Park Line cargo steamer, was to have sailed from Lyttelton to-day for London, via Newcastle and South Africa. Members of the crew, for whom Mr T. Martin, the Lyttelton agent for the Seamen’s Union is acting, allege that their quarters are infested with vermin, that the tea has to be made in tins because of lack of teapots, that the ventilating fans were removed from their quarters and that the refrigerator in which perishable rations for the men were kept was disconnected without any reason being given. An inspector of the Department of Health, Mr T. E. Schou, visited the ship on Monday after complaints had been made by the men. He said he had found several dead bugs in the men’s quarters, but no live ones. The ship had been disinfected in Timaru before it came to Lyttelton, and he considered that the dead bugs he had seen were killed at Timaru. On the department’s recommendation, the ship was to be disinfected with D.D.T. powder, and Mr Schou considered that this would be effective. “We have had no trouble on this ship since she left England 16 months ago.” said the master. Captain H. A Kilgour. "We have been on some of the worst runs there are—phosphates from the islands, the Red Sea and Egypt—but there have been no complaints until now when we are loaded with £1.000.000 worth of cargo urgently needed in Britain. And here we are held up at the last minute.” Captain Kilgour added that trouble was made ashore.

Commenting on the complaint that the fans had been taken from the men’s auarters. the said that they had been damaged and removed for repairs. They would have bPbn replaced when the vessel reached the tropics.