Captain-W. H. Corneck, captain of the tus St. Dominic, was the first wine He stated that he was in charge of plaintiffs' fleet of tugs and lighters during the salvage operations. We had a master's certificate issued in Lon-dow and his experience was 37 years at sea. Ile had been with the plaintiffs for 16 years and' had had quite a little experience of salvage work round this coast. When witness first went down to the Glaucus the weather was a bit rough.
On Mr. Hartopp putting a ques-ion to witness, Mr. Macleod said 2 now prepared to admit that witness took a set of soundings at the request of the master of the Glaucus. This had not been ad mitted in the pleadings.
Witness, continuing, said he-was quite positive the Glaucus did not use her engines on the occasion when her head was shifted from N.W. to about N. On August 26, they dragged the ship astern at least 30 fect. On -August 97, a lighter was damaged and was taken away. She was leaking in three plates and witness had her baulked and put out of commission. He insisted that it was at the special request of the owners' agents that a wire hawser was ran from the Glaucus to the Elpenor. The hawser broke immediately. There was no interval at all. It did not hesitate about it, it just broke. Later, he was told to "hai on as long as possible" which lo did. The waves were about five or six feet in height. Later they went back to Shanghai and a very rough passage. Witness suffered a great deal of anxiety about the Hanching, which was making very rough weather. At times she was buried in the. water and witness was afraid she would extinguish her fires and became unmanageable. There was great difficulty with the.lightors and those in tow of the Victoria broke adrift twice. He considered the Hanching was in great danger of being lost, of foundering.
Hartopp—Of being swamp-Witness—Yes. The men on deck had to tie themselves' up with ropes, so as not to be washed overboard. She had a very rough time. On the August 30, the motor. boat of the Glaucus broke ay and was recovered by the Victoria. The' chief officer of the Glaucus was on hoard her, and two apprentices. They were later brought to witness's ship and came on board.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.