LOSS OF WAIKOUAITI

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 December 1939, Page 8

LOSS OF WAIKOUAITI

FORMAL INQUIRY OPENED IN WELLINGTON CAPTAIN GIVES EVIDENCE. SHIP ON ADMIRALTY COURSE. ■ (By Telegraph—Press Association.) ■WELLINGTON This Day. The formal inquiry into the loss of the Union Company’s intercolonial steamer Waikouaiti. which was wrecked off Dog Island, three miles from the Eluff, on the night of November 28. was begun at Wellington today. The Waikouaiti was c-n route from Sydney to Lyttelton when she ran aground in a fog. Mr A. M. Goulding, S.M.. presided and before taking evidence said the ship had been on a course fixed by the Admiralty and he asked that details of the course be not published except those immediately relevant to the inquiry. Captain John Bruce. Master of the Waikouaiti, in evidence said that during the afternoon and early evening there were banks of fog around the mainland and the sea was smooth. He set a course to take him clear of Dog Island. They had not sighted the light on Dog Island at 8.15 p.m. because of fog. Al 8.37 he sighted land fine on th? port bow and gave orders to put the wheel hard starboard. At 8.38, after the ship had come round to the south-east she struck the bottom. Witness rang "stop” to the engine room and gave instructions to have soundings taken all round the ship

Captain Bruce said he had been a master for twenty years and had never previously appeared before a court of inquiry. Between 2.2 p.m. and 7.56 p.m. they took ten cross-bearings. Stewart Island was very clear up to 4 p.m. Up to almost 8 p.m., they knew definitely where the vessel was. At 8 p.m., witness estimated that he was about five miles from Dog Island. During the ebb tide there was a strong current, in a southerly direction from Bluff Harbour and he expected to be carried south at the time he was passing. He considered it perfectly safe to carry on. There must have been an unexpected set from the south. A fog signal , on Dog Island would have made all the difference. There was no such signal in that locality. He did not think the visibility was so bad that he could pass Dog Island and the light without seeing them.