UNSEA WORTHS SHIPS.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 283, 8 May 1875, Page 3

UNSEA WORTHS SHIPS.

(Pall Mall Budget)

A case which was concluded on Saturday afterathreeday's trialin the Court of Common Pleas pretty strikingly illustrates some of those mischiefs which it is now sought to remedy by legislation. The case was an .action on a charterparty against a shipowner by the shipper of a cargo of timber alleged to have been lost by the negligence of the captain and the unseaworthiness of the vessel. The plaintiff's counsel stated that he did not know the early history of the ship, but that of the later years was as bad as could be. In December, 1868, she was waterlogged in the Bristol Channel. In February, 1870, she came back from America with timber on board, and also with five feet to six feet of water in her hold, having been obliged to jettison part of her deck cargo. In October, 1872, she came from America to Bristol with a deck-load of timber " to which something had happened," grounded in the Avon, very leaky, and underwent a slight but insufficient repair. In January, 1873, he went from Bristol to Sapelo in ballast, and leaked all the way out, and also while loading; the crew at first declined tosail on her return voyage, but were at last induced to do so, and she arrived at Bristol leaking badly. On the occasion in question in the present action the "good ship" Thorwalsden

was loaded " quite full of pitch pine under hatches, and also had two layers of logs about 50ft long and 15in square on deck, covering it entirely with the exception of the hatches." She started in charge of a tug, and grounded heavily in crossing on the bar at the mouth of the harbour. The owner, Mr George Wills, who was close at hand in another vessel, told the captain of the Thorwalsden to " square his yards and go on." The captain accordingly went on, the Thorwalsden making two feet of water an hour as she went, the weather being " absolutely fine" at the time. Before any rough weather occurred the crew discovered that the decks were giving way. It blew hard for two days, and the vessel having then accumulated 7ft or Bft of water in the hold, the crew tried to jettison part of the cargo, and a day or two afterwards a passing American ship was hailed and the waterlogged vessel abandoned, all hands being saved. For the defence it was contended, to use Lord Coleridge's expression, that the vessel was " the very finest ever seen in the country ;" and it was said that she was safer with a deckload than without. The jury, however, however, found that she was not seaworthy, and gave a verdict for £1548 and £420 for advances. It surely ought to be possible by legislation to clear the sea of Thorwaldsens, whatever else is beyond our power in the matter.