“Hard a Port."

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 57, 29 June 1914, Page 5

“Hard a Port."

THE WRECKED EMPRESS. THE STORSTAD BLAMED. (By Eleotbio Telegraph—Copybight. [United Press Association.] ,

Quebec, Juno 27

At the Empress of Ireland enquiry, Mr Aspinall, in his address, contended that because the wheel was first ported and then without authority changed to “hard a-port” when the vessel had steerage way on, the Stors. tadt was responsible for the disaster. He asked the Commission to find that, the crew of the Storstad was inaccurate when they claimed that the collier refused to answer her helm, and argued that the changed course on the portend helm took her into the stationary liner at right angles at sufficient speed to cause the fatal damage. If there had been no such change, the vessels would have passed safely. He contended that to find that the Empress of Ireland had starboarded her helm would be tantamount to a charge of perjury against Captain Kendall, who claimed that he had not altered his course. Counsel scoffed at the idea of Captain Kendall telling ' a deliberate lie when he had just faced death. Mr Aspinall charged Saxe, the third officer of the Storstad, with the responsibility fox the disaster in taking the wheel from the helmsman without authority, and putting it hard a-port..

A NORWEGIAN ENQUIRY. Ottawa, June 27. The Norwegian enquiry over the Storstad, which rammed the Empress of Ireland, will be started to-mor-roxv. The captain and crew will appear before the enquiry, which will be held in private. It is statfed that it is to be an ordinary enquiry, without judgments or the forming of opinions as to who were the guilty parties in the disaster. Mr William Johannesen, acting-Consul-General in Canada, will be in charge of the enquiry.