POKED PEN KNIFE THROUGH KARU'S HULL.

Shannon News, 26 March 1926, Page 4

POKED PEN KNIFE THROUGH KARU'S HULL.

SEAMAN'S STARTLING "STATEMENT INQUIRY INTO WRECK OF STEAMER AUCKLAND, Last Night. The Court of Inquiry investigating 'the wreck of the Karu opened before Mr. Cutten. S.M., and Captains Braidwood and Owen as assessors. Mr, Meredith, Crown solicitor, in opening, said Thomas Halliday, -who went as far as Hokianga in the Karu, and then left her, had made some rather startling statement's. . He had made a statement that while working below he had tried the plates with a penknife and had found them coated with rust and that the plates were ■so thin that he pushed his penknife through. He had an argument with the captain about payment for working the bunkers and cargo and; he had used this as an excuse for leaving" the ship at Hokianga, but his real reason, he said, was that he considered the, ship unsafe. Captain Tomlkison, surveyor of the ship, stated that when the Karu was iu Auckland, he inspected the forcraast and life-saving appliances, saw ,-thc survey certificate, issued at New South Wales in January, which covered the current year and received no complaints from anyone about the vessel. There'was.no official inspection of the "hull,'as-far as he knew. Captain Richmond, master of the Karu, said the vessel did not touch th c Whangape bar when crossing, but in berthing, she touched a pile with hor stern. An examination showed no had been done. The timber cargo was stowed so that there was absolutely no room for movement. The Karu was towed out and when in the vicinity of the bar, touched something once. A s ounding wa's ;uken,-but showed no sign of a leakage. The weather got bad and he reduced speed. At S o'clock he turned the ship over -to the chief officer. A little later, the second officer reported water in the hold and speed was further reduced,' the ship being practically hove to. The wind was blowing very hard /and the pumps could not cope with the water. He got thq lifeboats out and set a course to run for' shelter, but about daylight the ship loslfc steering r jway. ,

Captain Richmond was cross-exam-ined at length by Mr. Selwyn Mays. At one stage th e chairman said they .had listened for twenty minutes and , bad a few words from witness and alt 'the rest from Mr. Mays.' Asked why ho continued to sound the vessel for hours after the bump, witness said he was following the ordinary precaution of the sea. What . caused the wreck, was the possibility of having struck the bar, wreckage or a sunken log, coupled with the very Heavy weather. The only evidence of a bump was touching- on the bar. Herbert Alexander Hulford' said he noticed a single-light bump as the Karu negotiated the bar: Oscar A. Varjtnen, A. 8., said he had put cement filling: in the forepart of the ship. Witness had known of no leakage in, the hull. He had felt three bumps when jthe Karu Crossed the bar. The second bump was very heavy.

To Mr. Vallance, witness said the cement filling had been applied to a portion of the hull in Australia. This was because a pole had struck the Plates' and starred a rivet, causing a leak. Two of the men had gone In ■swimming to. locate th G leak. The fault was made good at Auckland and ' the cement .removed. The inquiry was adjourned.

LEAK BEATS THE PUMPS.

ENGINEER'S EVIDENCE, AUCKLAND, March 25. Ajt the Kara inquiry to-dav, George Nelson, engineer, said he felt the vessel touch a pile when berthing at Whangapae. He made an inspection and failed to find any damage. Grossing the bar he felt one slight fajump. He took soundings- and found two inches of water in the hold and four ■inches in the engine room. The soundings were normal. Speed was ■reduced at 10 p.m. Shortly after midnight there was about a foot of water in the engine room, bilges. Witness had the. bilges, pumped quite dry. Soundings in the hold showed 18 inches of water. After half an hour's pumping it had increased to 19 inches, and despite pumping, it increased at the rate of two inches an hour. The ship began to list to starboard and about seven in the morning two or three seas swept over the ship and washed the engine room door in. The water then began! to pour in and further seas opened up a plate in the ship's side. It was impossible to keep steam or to control the water. All hands were ordered on deck. The weather conditions resembled a cyclone.