MR GOTUK'S STATEMENT.

Observer, Volume 3, Issue 62, 19 November 1881, Page 148

MR GOTUK'S STATEMENT.

MAKING- A CXBAN BEEAST OF IT. . Since the above was in type Mr Gouk, one of the most experienced and skilful shipwrights in Auckland, has called on the writer and made the following statement : — " I repaired the Glimpse in. 1874. My first task was to secure the bowsprit, which had got loose in the gammon-band on the passage from Newcastle to Auckland with coals. I tried to fasten the gammon-band to the main-stem, but I found that the latter was so completely rotten that it would not hold. I cut away the hooden-ends to try the apron. I found that pretty fair, so that I could get a fastening in it. Then I had to caulk the top-sides, but I found that a great many of the butts could not be caulked without being fastened. I tried to fasten them, but there was nothing to fasten them to, so that I was obliged to put in screw-bolts and secure them to the skin on the inside; which I covered up with graven pieces, so that they should not be seen if anyone came to examine them. The top-gallant forecastle was away from the hooden-ends an inch and a-half, but I did not remove the bolts. She was afterwards fastened at Dargaville with iron-breast hooks to keep her bows in her. I did not say that the bolts were dropping out of her. It was the bilge-shores that floated out from under her, not the keelblocks. The vessel, when I saw her last in dock, ■wanted 15 inches of water to float her, but the bilge-shores floated from under her before the Veel was afloat. When the pressure of the water ff ot underneath, the bottom rose before the rest of the vessel. Her bottom was like a sieve I make this statement without any feeling or bias against anyone, but simply in the interests of truth."

In conclusion we would respectfully ask Mr Stone to be good enough to explain how it is that he has shewn such a predilection for vessels of the class of the Wellington and Glimp 8 «. Would it not be more in consonance Avith the character of one of Auckland's merchant princes to keep vessels of a class which would be more likely to do credit to the Port of Auckland, and which would leave no grounds for the strictures which we have been compelled to pass through a regard for public safety and commercial morality.