Q.—If you were the only witness out of thirty who said these lids did not fit in by their own weight, will you contradict them all? A.—Yes.
Q.—If Mr. Grant, who fitted them in, states that the lids secured themselves only by their own weight, do you contradict him? A.—Yes; I say what I know.
Q.—You swore at the Marine Board enquiry that you took the Alert to Tasmania as a trial trip? A.—I meant to say it was a severe trial to the ship.
Q.—We are told by witnesses that her freeboard aft was only about two feet? A.—That is wrong. She had double that. She never had less than four feet aft from the water’s edge to the deck. She used to draw ten feet six inches aft, and her depth of hold was nine feet six inches.
Q.—Then how could she get the freeboard? A.—Because she had a long heel aft.
Q.—Did you say to-day that it was according to the weather, and that in bad weather the Alert would not behave very grand? A.—I don’t remember saying that, but if I did, it would be true of her, or any other ship.
Q.—When you were in the Alert, did she ever take water down into the engine room or stoke-hole? A.—It might be a few drops, or a bucketful, down through the gratings, or the doors.
Charles William McLean was recalled to explain that although there was a clause in the Alert’s river and Bay certificate that she was not fit to ply outside the river and Bay, as defined by the Act, it did not mean that the vessel was unfit to go outside the Heads.
His Honour: That is a question for argument.
Mr. Smyth: I shall argue that the vessel was certified as unfit to go outside the Heads.