The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1904-05-19
AHARD BLOW At chinese CREWS
PACIFIC MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY IS HELD LIABLE
FOR THE WRECK OF THE STEAMER ON ACCOUNT OF
THE LACK OF A COMPETENT CREW-CHINESE UN-
ABLE TO UNDERSTAND EMERGENCY ORDERS.


ship Company liable heavy damages because of the loss of life in the
wreck Of the Rio de aneo due the incompetence of the Chinese
The Rio manned by white officers and Chinese The
officers and the spoke different languages and when
emergency the unable understand the commands lower
the boats.
This the first passage the law in 1853 limit
ing damages for spwreck the OF the pending freight that
preston pending freight means what the shpowner might have e
pecd the during which the spwrec occurred
only in Of negligence that the pending freight limit can
be set aside
the present instance the court holds that the steamship company
employed incompetent and therefore liable for the full sum
OF damages incurred for loss Of life and personal effects
usual limit damages that oneenth OF the claims that might eg
ma have been presented filed Now that the decision has been
rendered said that OF these claims barred by the statute
limitations but the lawyers who have successfully pressed the claims
that allowed declare that be found to revive all the
What this might the Pacific Mail Company will be under
stood from the fact that 100 persons were drowned the wreck OF the
RIO and that the usual measure OF damages for each life in adj
dton the actual loss of the baggage and other personal effects
The assigned by the affects all Chinese because
Of them speak the language their officers and therefore
they unfit with act sort OF contn-
genc where commands cannot be given by signs or through an inter
prefer will be understood therefore that the decision almost
the shpwre where lives are lost from steamship man
In that the question put E H. Hartman president of
the Pacific Mail Company yesterday by representative of The Elk
Chinese steamships Mr. Hartman would only that the
be decided by the officers OF the after con-
Steamship in this city that to substitute white crews for the
single hpweck might amount to ten times as much as that sum
and would have done the of the Rio had the relatives OF the
people drowned been alive to their rights,
In the the damages allowed by the amount
$35I25, follows
Gayon Henry Gayon $780, H. Hensha for
heirs of W. A. Hensha $6z5 R. P Hensha for Mrs G. A. Denho
$780, Henhal for estate A. W. Dodd $1,000 Kate West
$3.50; Frances Ripley $500; Russell Harper $1,000; William Bande
Fec Susson SIS 900; B. G. Halves for Naomi Wakefield $1,000 Ruth
Miller for baggage of Sarah Wakefield $1,000; W. Ach for bag
gage Letia Wdman F. Adrch Virginia Forte
Adrh for death Of Leia A. Wdman $780, L. T. Wagner
dian of Frank Wordsworth for death OF father OF said minor $4,000
Total $35,I25.
The Rio lost February 1901 just outside this
dense fog o'clock the morning When she struck the rocks
quite although twenty
80 d U b S +b e Sailors pT diT T know tbe business
The boat that foated,was launched by white
The Court Commissioner held that the of the freight pending
was only S42 3 and therefore sa ' was sd the n limit OF damages o
proaed share Of the 97793 allowed for freight pending Such
that there such limit this instance because OF the negligence of
the company in employing an incompetent crew .
Concerning the judgment of the lower the judgment rendered
yesterday says:
the sinking ship
peril the but the gross negligence of her and pilot
Such the the hpwec The of the loss of life
for which damages asked treated at much greater length the
The main ground Of appeal is that the crew of the lost
steamship spoke and understood only the language and
ton different from the officers Immediately in command over them
the launching of the eboats said vessel and that they
speak understand the commands of said officers and that they
had been drilled the launching of the eboa train them to launch
the without command.
this founded the goes say the
pany any limitation of liability" The
the evidence upholds the contention in these words
The record shows that the disaster occurred about half
the morning OF February The Jog dense that the
day afforded no light dark but the water smooth and
there but little list the ship she sank which she did
twenty minutes from the time of striking the rocks She carried I'll
eleven life boats three which swung dv from
the sides of the ship and eight of which ds the roofs Of
the deck houses These equipment and apparatus for aunhng them
good The evidence that under such conditions five minutes
ample time for the lowering of the boats 1t further shows that
there panic the that the
behaved we'll and that the captain Immediately striking the rocks
sounded the alarm and called the the boats Each the boats
commanded by white officer and manned by the Chinese
Yet but three of the eleven boats lowered into the
of which lowered by Officer Cogan and the ships carpenter
and but three of the hundred and odd that the ship carried
taken into any boat.
There have paramount controlling for all this
And that think is very easily to be seem
How about Chinese sailors sailors other class who