JUDGMENT IN THE SARAH AND MARY CASE.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2348, 25 September 1880, Page 2

JUDGMENT IN THE SARAH AND MARY CASE.

SECOND EDITION

Last night Mr Caleb Willie toon I 11. M., before leaving in the steamer for Kaikoura, delivered in open Court (lie followin'; judgment respecting (he inquiry into (he loss of the ketch Sarah and Mary : —" That the loss or damage appears by liie evidence to have boon caused by the vessel parting her cable whilst anchored off Motuara Island, near the entrance to Queen Charlotte’s Sound, and drilling ashore and subsequently taking fire. That with reference to the parting of the cable which occurred at a shackle, the evidence of Captain Dnnsford, Lloyd’s surveyor, is that the cable was of more than usual strength, and the evidence given has not silislied hi.n that either wind or sea was snllieiently strong to account lor (lie cable parting if it had been properly secured. According to the evidence of the master the night was line and calm, the wind being occasionally squally, but not snllieiently so to cause any appro liension of danger or any precaution being taken. The facts elicited in the evidence that the crew, consisting of live men, with their effects and some provisions, found no difficulty or danger in leaving the vessel after she struck', in a thirteen foot boat, and rowing to a landing place about a mile and a ball; away, and, after landing the effects and one of the men, returning to the vessel, then miming out a hedge, and subsequently returning to the landing place, show conclusively there could not have been much sea on. According to the master’s evidence, he bad undertaken to keep (he anchor watch on the night in question, until midnight, which he did according to his own account, by going to sleep in the cabin. Tie apparently thought it necessary to give the vessel some more chain about 10 p.m, less than an hour before the vessel was wrecked, and then turned in again, and went to sleep from which ho was aroused by one of the crow, who had discovered the vessel was drifting ashore. From his own evidence alone on this point lie was guilty of gross neglect in not keeping an anchor watch in an open anchorage. I do not consider that any satisfactory evidence has been given to account for the origin of the lire, and I consider the whole of the evidence given by the master and mate to be thoroughly untrustworthy and unreliable. In reference to costs, the Magistrate said that they must bo paid by the master. They amounted to T.’Jo llis. As to counsel’s fees, he did not think that any but tbc Crown Solictor’s could be included. Had he the power he would

order the counsel of the underwriters, Mr H. N. Nalder his full fee, as had it not been for the evidence he brought out in his cross-examination of the witnesses,- the Court might have found some difficulty in getting at the facts.