IN RE MERCHANT SHIPPING ACTS, 1894 TO 1906. APPEAL BY WILLIAM DUNN, SECOND OFFICER OF STEAMSHIP "CITY OF LINCOLN."

(1946) 80 Ll.L.Rep. 692

ADMIRALTY DIVISION.(DIVISIONAL COURT).

Before Mr. Justice Hodson and Mr. Justice Pilcher, sitting with Commodore R. L. F. Hubbard and Captain T. L. Owen, Elder Brethren of Trinity House.

Seaman - Certificate - Suspension - Appeal - Stranding of steamship City of Lincoln off Quoin Point, South Africa - Stranding found by Court of Inquiry held in Cape Town to be due to "erratic steering; error in calculating distance off Danger Point; course set too near the land; no allowance made for inshore set or current; failure to take prompt action when it should have been obvious that the ship was well to the northward of her estimated course between midnight and 00 30" - Specific finding of negligence against second mate in that he failed to take sufficient warning, first from a sounding and later from a bearing, that ship was off her course - Twelve months' suspension (within limits of South African waters) of second mate's master's certificate, second mate being officer of the watch at time of stranding - Appeal by second mate against suspension - Evidence that second mate came on watch at midnight, having been given his position and the course he was to follow on chart - Position in fact erroneous - Alleged negligence or bad seamanship in regard to his conduct during his period of watch - Compass error - Alleged duty to take frequent soundings - Look-out - Bearings - Criticism of visit to chart-house during watch for purpose of working out compass error from his own observations.