The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-11-29
'LAHnER'S CHARGES
HEARD By BOARD
Denial Made BY Captain CunninghAm
OF Accusations Made By M0nbcr
Of His Crow.
NAY ABOLISH TUG AND DREDGE.
Feeling Strong In Administrative
Board for Doing Away Entirely
With Them-win Take Final Ac-
ton A. to Oompsainant On Monday.

Charging favoritism on the part OF
Captain Cunningham. OF the city
dredge. toward members OF his crew.
Bruce Latimer, = deckhand on the
dredge, was called before the Admin
istrative Board yesterday afternoon to
substantiate the claims he had made.
In a letter to the board he had made
a statement OF q number Of charges
against Captain Cunningham, which
were fully discussed in the presence
OF the crows Of the city dredgs and
the city tug.
Captain Cunningham took the door
70 answer the charges set forth In
the letter. which stated that Cunning
ham had docked certain men TOR
time thsy wers at work and enAe
he had sh0wn distinct partially In re-
gard 70 certain men ON the boat The
letter further Stated that 1At1msr
when ho wa kept At home because OF
his wifS's illneA Tho captain do
MED the charges preferred, and stated
that hs had looked IAtamsr for the
day missed because NO doctors cor
ttncA&o, ~ the regulations require.
had been submitted.
Iaxtmsr ohargsd that last Septem-
bsr, when the dredge and tug had
been taken TO Newport News in order
TO inseal1 new boilers, . part OF tho
crew was st to work helping the con-
TRACTOR place the machinery. and that
the contractor had paid them for this
servioe. 1t the same timc they were
receiving money from the city. CHIEF
Enstneer REYNOLDS testified that two
members Of the crew had been As
agned 70 help the contractor install
the boilers. but that they had nothing
elss 70 do and there was no reason
why $hsy should not have been doing
this work
Makes CRarxe Axnfns& wcach
Then IAtimer charged c. B. WEIGH.
another deck hand. with stealing
wood and of. which belonged to the
city. weloh was questioned A. to this,
but frmly denied any such Acuon.
LAtimer claimed that he had reported
the alleged thefts TO the captain and
chief engineer. but tho latter men de-
MED the statement Other members
OF the crew wer called. and they testi-
fed that SO far as they knew WEIGH
had not been guilty Of the thefts as
charged.
j. H. O'Conners. a deck hand, ad-
rnitted that he had taken drink OF
whlskev while on duty when an In
vcstiratfon OF the habits OF the crew
was made He stated that all OF the
crew. with the exception OF the cap
tain and tho chief engineer. had In
duIged In the spirits, but that ne
didn't know who had furnished the
liquor James Smith. deck hand. de-
clared that he had never seen any
whiskey on board the boat.
Chairman Htrschberg put this ques-
tinn 10 I4atiIner: would you like to
accept the position as captain on this
boa; ?'' and T.atimor replied: 1T
would be good thing II somebody
was there TO take the position"
That's what ! thought Was the trou-
hle.s said Mr.. Hir@ .hburg and I H.
naiiv rot you 10 say II" Mr., Hirsch-
berg thought l4atimer's position was
one OF frank INSTRUMENTATION.
4 thorough investigation ~ the
snatter waG gone into. and majority
OF the crew of the tug and dredge
were called on for te.timony. LAti-
ner continued TO make further char
ges during the investigation. and
Chairman Htrsohhere repeatedly con-
fronted him with questions which
threw him at a loss 10 answer.
Captain Cunningham has been In
the service of the city for forty-fou-
years.
He stated yesterday that the only
furlough he has had from work In
that time was on tho occasion OF his
marriage. when he was away for a
few DAYS, He strongly resented the
charges that were laid against his In
tegrfty. and IN this regard Mr.. Hirsch-
berg said, II have the utmost conf
dence tn Captain C1nningham.s hon
esty|'
Tho board contemplated immediate
action, which probably would have
deprived Latimer OF position in the
city seivice, but after consideration
decided to defer action Until the regu-
lar meeting Monday morning. Com
missioner Beck stated that ne had
compiled 4 body Of statistics which
he wished to verify before final action
was taken. and during the discussion
the opinion was strongly pressed that
the AhoiishinE Of the dredee and tug
altogether would be OF beneht to the
city Mr.. Mccarthy declared that II
'Is tho most expensive and most use
less piecs Of machinery we've got"
ana Mr. Htrschberg said he would
vote to do away with It entirely. The
IAtimer matter will be definitely de-