How Carpenter Ship

Was Lost Extraordinary Circumstances

THERE are extraordinary features sur rounding the loss of the 4,000 tons freighter “Admiral Day” which, having just been purchased in the US by Messrs. W. R. Carpenter &! Co., Ltd., and transferred to the British flag, was wrecked on Canton Island in August through the “carelessness and negligent navigation” of the master.

The vessel was thoroughly seaworthy and in good condition, and left San Fran cisco on August 9, 1940, and in due course raised Canton Island light, on a clear night, in fine weather.

According to the naval court (which sat in Rabaul recently and enquired into the circumstances) there was ample time and plenty of sea-room to avoid contact with the island, but the master made no attempt to give the island a wide berth, nor to follow the Admiralty route given him. He refused to heed a warning given him by the Chief Engineer.

The Court decided that he could have prevented the vessel from stranding if he had immediately stopped and turned her round. The Court also said that the vessel might have been refloated had immediate salvage operations been com menced after stranding.

Another curious fact is that the Master and Third Officer (who was the officer on watch at the time of the accident) also the helmsman and the look-out man, were not brought to the Naval Court of Enquiry, but were allowed to scatter to different parts of the world; and the ship’s log-book was not made available to the Court.

The hearing opened in Rabaul on November 8 and it delivered its finding on November 22.

It will be remembered that two Ameri can freighters, the “Admiral Day” and the “Admiral Chase”, were purchased recently by W. R. Carpenter and Co., for use in the Pacific freighting trade.

Later.

The above is a summary of the find ing of the Naval Court, as published in the “Rabaul Times”.

It is stated in Sydney that this was only a “preliminary inquiry”; that there will have to be a fuller inquiry by a competent authority: that evidence was not withheld from the Rabaul Court; and that the Captain, supported by other shipmasters in the vicinity at the time, has a complete! answer to the charges of carelessness and negligence.

Mrs. H. K. Bartlett, accompanied by her three children, arrived in Sydney from Papua recently and later went on to South Australia. Her husband, who is a Methodist missionary on Misima Is land, is remaining in Papua.