CAPTAIN’S ERROR

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20994, 22 December 1939, Page 6

CAPTAIN’S ERROR

WAIKOUAITI WRECK FINDING OF COURT SHOULD NOT HAVE PROCEEDED « (By TdegTaplj.—Press Association) WELLINGTON, Friday Although the Court of Inquiry found that Captain John Bruce of the Waikouaitl, which was wrecked off Dog Island, three miles from Bluff, on the night of November 28, committed an error of judgment, It returned his certificate without endorsement, and did not order him to meet the costs of the inquiry. The actual finding of the court was as follows:

(1) The cause of the casualty was that after 8 p.m. on November 28 the master of the ship proceeded upon his course at the normal speed of 9j to 10 knots, when fog and weather conditions rendered the Dog Island light and all neighbouring landmarks mvisible, and wnen the vessel should not have proceeded.

(2) In so proceeding upon his course the master committed an error of judgment.

Further depositions at the inquiry yesterday were given by Cyril Arthur Spence, second officer, and William Angus Todd, chief officer of the Waikouaiti, gave evidence of the weather and the course during the afternoon of November 28, and John Wilson, third officer, who came on watch at 8 p.m., described the events before and after the ship struck. The last witness was Maxwell Hubert Simpson, ordinary seaman, who was at the helm when the ship struck. Submissions By Counsel Mr Prendeville said he had no submissions to make. The question the Court had to answer, submitted Mr Kirkcaldie, was whether the accident could be attributed to any wrongful act or fault, and whether the captain honestly exercised his discretion. He submitted that the captain had done so, and the question of wrongful act did not arise at all. This was not a case of wilful or deliberate dereliction of duty. Every officer had been on deck carrying out his duty to the best of his ability. The question of whether good seamanship had been displayed on the ship was already established by the chart placed before the Court covering the period from two o’clock until eight o’clock and a distance of about 60 miles. In that time no fewer than 10 cross-bearings were made. Until four o’clock the vessel appeared to have carried the flood tide with her. From 4 «i.m. to 6 p.m. she appeared to have a 14 -knot current against her, and from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. a IJ-knot current. Tidal predictions in the nautical almanac, Bluff Harbour Board predictions and the course of the vessel all established that she was feeling the ebb tide more strongly as she approached Bluff. The course marked on the chart should have carried the ship one and a-half miles south of Dos Island. Theories Propounded Mr Kirkcaldie submitted that the Waikouaiti had been deflected from her course either by a sudden change of tide or other such influence, or else the fact that she was carrying a steel cargo off the coast of highlymagnetised country might have deflected her or affected her instruments. The Magistrate: Any such deviation must have occurred in the five miles since the fix at eight o’clock. There can be no question on the evidence of the accuracy of that fix Mr Kirkcaldie: Whether there was any such influence I have not to establish. All I have to establish is that the master showed no misconduct or negligence, and the best evidence of that is the 10 fixes made between two o’clock and eight o’clock. The Court reserved decision until tomorrow.