LINER CRIPPLED IN AMERICA

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 14 April 1917, Page 2

LINER CRIPPLED IN AMERICA

UNDER DIRECTION GERMAN

GOVERNMENT. BOSTON, Feb 17. The North German Lloyd, passenger liner Kronprinzessin Cecilie, while in the custody of a United States Marshal under a libel order from the Federal Court, was deliberately disabled at the direction of her German commander.

Captain Charles A, Polack so testified in the United States District Court to-day, and added that he, in turn, had taken his orders from the German Government. The damage to the vessel was done on the night of January 31, three days before diplomatic relations between the United States and Germany were broken off. The machinery had been tampered with, making it impossible to navigate the vessel until many and exten-

sive repairs had been made. Under examination by counsel for the libelants, Captain Polack said that on that day he had received orders to render his vessel unseaworthy from an unnamed official of the German Embassy at Washington. The Kronprinzessin Cecilie was bound from New York for Plymouth and Cherbourg when her commander was warned that war had been declared. He turned back, and found refuge in Bar Harbour, Me. On board the steamer was gold shipped by the Guaranty Trust Compan'y and the National City Bank of New York to bankers in London and Paris, and these banks libeled th e vessel, claiming damages of 2,300,000 dollars because of the failure to deliver the consignment. In November, 1014, a United States Marshal took possession of the steamer, which was brought to Boston, where she has since been tied up. B. Stuart Murphy, a marine survey-

? or, testified that he examined the ship h>' and found the damage substantially l as described by Wright, and that it * would cost 110,000 dollars to repair I the visible damage. The damage to 1 the high-pressure cylinders and engine could not be repaired in less than six months, he said, and would prob- < ably take longer. He believed the other damage could be repaired in about three weeks. He thought the vessel in its present condition was worth between 2,500,000 and 8,000,000 j dollars. * The Court ordered that the vessel be sold by the Marshal oh April 11, , unless on or before February 20 the owners had furnised a bond of 200,000 dollars to repair promptly the machinery damaged and protect the steamer from further injury. The cost of : maintaining the ship, pending the dispositon of the case, also was put upon the .owners.