The Hawaiian gazette., 1915-08-13

after they have written it, supposing
they can write in the, first place; and
II they pronounce H. you cant get
them w. spell it. s..... No.. 59
deck passengers tumble into the
ship in droves, with no payment in adj
vance. You collect from them when
they get of can remember when
they used to swarm over the sides Of
the ship. That was one Of the first
things ] put a stop TO, after had seen
number Of them narrowly miss break!
ing their neeks by falling over bach I
wards. II they are to be booked and
registered, the whole system of traffic
must he rev6lutionized.
Commission Is obdurate
The commission remained strongly Of
the opinion that e ought TO be done.
'IWell," consented SuPerfntendeht
Sheedy, rather reluctantly, 1--WE II try
anything once, but l don't think il
can be done. " r. =
ar don Z doubt for an instant that
there will be considerable difficulty,
but | think IL ought TO he done, anil
I am sure Il ought TO be tried, insist
cd Comm issioner Williams.
Running his pencil down Chairman
Forbes letter, Superintendent Sheedy
came to a recommendation that a deck
officer be placed in charge OF every
landing party sent ashore. He appre-
eiated the desire of the commission ~
FIX responsibility, but in practise, no
said, the thing often worked out diff
ferently. The purser or the freight
clerk might be and often was a much
better surfman than the second mate.
1--WE bring our mates down from the
Coast, - he said; "they are competent
officers, but many of them have hal
no experience with small boats except
on the open sea. There are some or
them 1 woaldn' Z go through the SURF
with myself. ia prefer an Hawaiian
boatsteerer.n 81
Reasoning Not Ingenious
Chairman Forbes didnt seem to
think this line Of reasoning was wholly
ingenious.
ftDo you mean TO tell me, - he asked
with some asperity, "that if yOu d had
a deck officer In that boat at Lahaina,
he wouIdn't have had more influence
over that crew in maintaining dis
cipline than the boatsteererf'
Not necessarily"
tswell, then all I've got to say"
exploded the chair, sis that your
mates aren I worth q damn!'
"That is not true" replied Super
intendent Sheedy steadily. -" And Il
YOU We Travelled around these Islands
at all, You know it. The officer might
have been the one to need assistance
first" %
"I think the suggestion should
stand" said Commissioner Williams.
IF it should prove TO be impractic
able, then it can be withdrawn.
spare Boat At Lahaina
The commission farther suggested
that the company maintain a spare
boat at Lahaina landing, TO be manned
ny volunteers in the event of acct
dents. Superintendent Sheedy did not
consider the suggestion practicable.
Life saving, he said, was work de-
manding organization. II the boat was
to be OF any value, d trained crew on
duty. night and day mist be main
tanned TO man it, and it was not just,
he thought, to require the company to
70 into the business Of equipping and
maintaining life saving stations ali
over the Hawaiian Islands. If at La
H"I've been thinking a good deal
over this accident" he said, "I be-
gan thinking of it before the commits
sion took it up. The company is de-
sirous to prevent a repetition and l
have thought it might be well to have
40 extra boat lowered away, fully
manned and kept in readiness in the
lee Of the ship.
Better abandon Landing
"Bettee send the extra boat in to
follow up the Others" recommended
Chairman Forbes.
"No," dissented Superintendent
Sheedy with emphasis. eff Lahaina
landing is as dangerous as that, it 5
no fit place to put women and children
ashore. II had better be abandoned. -
The commission in its findings did
not touch at all on one other point
brought up in the testimony which fig
ured rather prominently In the head
lines Cf tie newspapers at the time an .
vas m"Ge the nasis of letter to The
Inter Island by the an,isalUOu League,
in which the league recommended thHt
the company employ only ssaui"n who
are total abstainers, suPpOsing such to
exist
That point was the testimony OF
John Saffry, his wife and one other
woman passenger, that the boat -steerer
and his crew were drunk.
Testimony Not Given Weight
Informally and not as a part of the
record, one Of the commissioners said
Yesterday that he and his associates
had not given the testimony weight
as nothing had been adduced to sup
port it. e..
Superintendent Sheedy had this to
say on the same subject in his writ,
ten statement;
During your hearing before the
board, one of the witnesses, John
Saffry, testified to the effect that the
crew of the boat which was overturned
was drunk. .'. .
''In this regard you are advised that
Captain Berg states that while. Hiku
(the boat.steerer) served under him
while he (Berg) was mate of the Mauna
Kea. he had never seen any sign of
drink on him. Hiku himself states
very emphatically that he never drinks
or smokes. And while this may seem
remarkable. the writer has good cause
to believe it. 4
at is not at all probable that when