by Peter Tonkin
‘No, thank you, Mr Cornwall. Let us cut to the chase, as they say. Were you happy to award Goodman Richard her certificate of seaworthiness?’
‘Subject to some work being done, yes, I was.’
‘And did you see that the work had been done?’
‘No, I did not. Goodman Richard left port before I had a chance to return but I accepted the assurance of Mr Lee that the work had been done and sent the certificate off with copies to the authorities and the Captain’s copy to Brewer Street to be forwarded aboard.’
‘Is this usual procedure?’
‘It’s been known. My concerns were small and by no means life-threatening as far as I was aware at the time. And there was an overlap in any case - her current certificate still had a week or so to run at that time. She was well able to sail and her handling would hardly have been affected even had the work not been done at that point. But of course, the work had been done. I had been so assured by Mr Lee. And I should say that this was not the fatal voyage. She sailed on safely for a year before she was lost.’
Maggie nodded, consulted her own notes, then asked, ‘Were you surprised when you heard that she had been lost?’
‘Yes. I must frankly confess I was. I am not myself anything more than a weekend sailor, you understand. And I was, coincidentally, out in the storm in question. But my little yacht Grey Goose Two survived and she’s only a twenty footer; so I saw no immediate reason why Goodman Richard should not have done so too.’
‘If it was not the ship herself, then perhaps it was the way she was handled? Can we have your expert assessment on that, sir?’ demanded Maggie quietly, her voice low but forceful.
‘Well, yes, but I must say it’s little better than a guess. With all her sticks bare - or a storm rig up at the most - she should have ridden out worse weather than that. Bare sticks being masts with no sails and a storm rig being a few sails needed to keep some control of the ship.’
‘That’s what the coastguards and the coxswain of the St Mary’s lifeboat told us, though they didn’t explain the technical terms. Now, Mr Cornwall, please think: were you surprised to hear how she had been lost?’
‘Again, yes, I was. There must have been a fair amount of canvas up to take two masts like that. Both at once, rigging and all.’
‘Canvas up, Mr Cornwall. Not masts weakened by bad or improper maintenance? Not rigging worn out and in need of replacement?’
‘It might be just possible, I suppose. If Mr Lee had been lying and nothing I ordered was done. If Goodman Richard had been battered about a good bit, in the hands of an inexperienced and careless crew. If health and safety had been ignored at every level. But the descriptions I have heard of the incident all convince me there must have been a fair amount of canvas up when the masts went down. And if that happened in the midst of the storm then that’s seamanship not management. It’s ship handling, not health and safety.’
‘One final thing, Mr Cornwall. Square-rigged sailing ships like Goodman Richard have been common around our coasts for centuries, have they not?’
‘Square-riggers have, yes. But not quite like Goodman Richard.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘She was modern. Steel-hulled, as I said. You couldn’t get four masts rigged like that on any of the old sailing ships.’
‘So she was quite modern, then, for a sailing ship?’
‘That’s right. Her keel was laid in, oh let me see ... 1966 ... Yes, 1966. She was launched in 1969.’
‘So, although she looked quite timeless, she was actually less than forty years old.’
‘Oh yes, that is quite correct.’
‘Mr Cornwall, would you agree that many of the boats taking part in the Admiral’s Cup this year are of greater age. That I myself have several friends - as do we all I am sure - who drive motor cars of greater age. And were you to holiday in some of the remoter regions of the world, you would undoubtedly fly in aeroplanes of greater age. I am certain that several of the so- called supertankers and container vessels which went past as she sank and were unable to come to her aid were of very much greater age. This was no ill-maintained ancient wreck just waiting to die. It was a well founded, well maintained, modern vessel.’
Maggie sat.
Carver Carpenter rose. ‘Are you telling the jury, Mr Cornwall, that the only explanation for the loss of the Goodman Richard is ship-handling? That there is no other possible explanation?’
‘No, sir. I don’t think I said that and I certainly didn’t mean to.’
‘Very well. Then might I suggest to you, sir, that Mr Lee might actually have been a little, shall we say, previous when he said the repairs had been effected - for this was the time the first concern about health and safety was initialled in the minutes of the charity board. Please check the dates, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. They do tally, I assure you. He had, it seems, referred the matter to Captain Mariner even as he was talking to you, Mr Cornwall. And we are aware of what action the Captain took. None whatsoever. Health and safety might not have been ignored at every level - but it was ignored at one, crucial level. Then, indeed, as you say Mr Cornwall, the Goodman Richard was battered about. Across the North Sea - the notorious North Sea time and again on a regular basis. And down across Biscay - worse still - for month after month. And were her crew inexperienced and careless? Effectively, yes of course they were! They were cadets. They were boys and girls who came aboard to learn what they were supposed to do. Some half-dozen officers aboard were really capable of handling a ship such as this and the rest just glorified baby-minders. You have heard from the last of the ship-handlers aboard her - the only one left alive after the Captain’s heroic attempt to get help. Did he say there were too many sails up? No, he did not. Did he say it all went by the board because of bad ship-handling? No he did not.
‘Now, Mr Cornwall, let us forget about the age of the average Admiral’s Cup competitor, of the occasional motor vehicle, the rare aeroplane and one tanker in twenty. This ship. The Goodman Richard. Could she have been destroyed by the storm that did not touch your yacht Grey Goose Two because she was owned by people who did not bother to do the work they promised they would do - or any other work at all for the next twelve months at sea? Hard months in tough, stormy seas?’
‘Well, yes. When you put it like that, of course sir. Of course it could have been gross neglect.’
Maggie half rose, aghast. Nowhere in any of their conversations in conference or even in his subsequent reports had he ever hinted at any such opinion. But before she could even call him back, Cornwall had turned and was on his way out of the witness box. And so she sat once again, stealing a sympathetic glance across towards Richard. He was white; stunned. Christ, she thought, thank goodness Robin was in physio, this afternoon. She didn’t want both of the Mariners looking like that. But still and all, she said to herself, rising again to call the next name on her witness list, With friends like that, who needs enemies?
Chapter 27: Error
During the succeeding days, Patrick Cornwall was followed into the witness box by the Goodman Richard’s Radio Officer, her First Officer, Paul Ho. Then by a series of cadets who were so different in aspect and attitude to the prosecution’s cadet witnesses that they might have been on a different ship, undergoing a different adventure altogether. It was the defence’s plan that these witnesses would be followed first by Doc Weary, then by Richard himself. And the prospect of this final ordeal added inexorably to the gathering tension Richard was experiencing as one hot, humid, oppressively tropical day followed another and Court Number One sweltered as though this were not London, but Calcutta.
The radio operator, overwhelmed, gave his evidence in a land of whisper. His experience in the post was actually limited, he explained, and in fact the Third and Fourth Deck officers were more often at the radio than he was himself. On the fatal day, he had been terribly seasick and had only been at his post for part of the watch. He had not been in contact with any ship other than the Lionhe
art whose answer to his distress call had come blessedly soon after he made it. The Fourth Officer had been at his post before him. The Fourth Officer had contacted the coastguards and sent out the first distress, so he had been told. And then, yes, there had been the lightning strike. And he really remembered nothing more.
Maggie treated him almost maternally to get such information from him as she did. But he was meat and drink to Carver Carpenter who demolished him in no time flat.
Paul Ho described the onset of the storm, and his impressions of the deck work and the sail-handling that it brought about. He was able also to describe the sea-sickness which had spread to many more aboard than the unfortunate Radio Officer, the growing panic - and how he had been hard-put to contain it. The moment that the masts went.
‘Were you on deck yourself at the critical moment?’ asked Maggie.
‘No, ma’am. I had been called below to a minor incident.’
‘But the other officers were?’
‘No. The Fourth Officer still held the radio watch but the Captain and his two main sail-handling officers were on deck of course with the cadets from Green Watch.’
‘So, it was not a case of “All Hands On Deck”.’
‘No, ma’am. Nor, by the grace of God, were any of the cadets aloft when the masts went by the board.’
‘Is that surprising?’
‘I hadn’t really thought of it in that light. I assume they were holding the Watch back, waiting to read the weather before sending them aloft in the storm.’
‘But in any case, you were below when the masts went.’
‘That is correct, ma’am...’
Ho described the sudden arrival of the shocked and soaking Green Watch, of the Fourth Officer’s attempts to get help on the radio - only vaguely heard in the bustle and the growing panic which he and a team of senior cadets were working hard to contain. Of the arrival of the Captain himself and his terse explanation of the situation, the warnings about the deadly dangers of the storm-swept deck - and of the plan to get help. The replacement of the Fourth Officer by the Radio Officer and the sudden quiet after the last lifeboat had gone...
‘Mr Ho,’ said Carver Carpenter, rising to his examination, ‘please allow me to clarify things for the jury. What precisely were your duties as First Officer?’
‘Obviously I have been trained and am experienced in ship-handling, theory and practice, life-saving and distress, loading, unloading, damage control, first aid, navigation, watch keeping...’
‘That’s not what I asked. On Goodman Richard, what were your duties?’
‘I held watches, practised first aid, oversaw lading, storage, galley routines. I set up and oversaw the watches for the cadets...’
‘Ah. Now, can we be clear here for the jury? Were your responsibilities principally to do with sailing the ship or to do with the welfare of the cadets?’
‘Cadet welfare, sir.’ The answer almost grated out of Paul’s throat. Clearly he did not like the fact and did not relish admitting to it.
‘And did you yourself at any time oversee the disposition, changing or handling of the sails themselves?’
‘No, sir.’
‘Did you, at any time, actually go aloft?’
‘Well, no, sir.’
‘No head for heights, eh?’
‘No, sir, not really.’ He tried to make a joke of it; going down Dr Walton’s dangerous road. ‘I get dizzy stepping off of a high kerb.’
Carver Carpenter paused, letting the admission sink into the jury’s consciousness. ‘But you are familiar with the theory of sail-handling? Rope and canvas work?’ His tone was patronizing - as befitted a sail-ship officer who was afraid of heights.
‘Well, I’m a bit rusty on lays, bights and whippings. I was trained in powered sailing rather than canvas...’ Paul’s voice trailed off. He was aware that he was not making a good impression on the jury and yet seemed powerless to put things right.
‘So your main function aboard was, as has been said earlier, childminding,’ sneered Carver Carpenter. ‘You were there as a kind of teacher - or more accurately a form-tutor. Perhaps even head prefect?’
‘You could put it like that.’
‘What you were not, and are not, is competent to pass any judgement on the sorry state of the Goodman Richard’s sails, masts and cordage. Nor upon the way Captain Jones and his sailing master were actually handling the ship when she so catastrophically let them down! Thank you, First Officer Ho.’ He made the words ‘First Officer’ sound like an insult, and they echoed on the humid air as he gathered his robes about himself and sat.
Maggie re-examined, but never really undid the damage Carver Carpenter had done to Paul Ho’s testimony. The cadets she called over the next day added to the First Officer’s stature as a childminder - and as a steady man in a crisis. But it was not until Friday morning that there was any further comment on the crucial matter of sail-handling, and some further explanation of what was going on aloft when the fatal moment struck.
Cadet May Chung was by no means as large or prepossessing as some of the other witnesses. But there was something about her that claimed the court’s attention at once. Sensing this, Maggie was willing to let her have her head. And May, forthright and unwilling to fancy up her evidence even with the simplest explanation, simply took no prisoners.
‘You were the senior cadet in the Green Watch, I understand,’ said Maggie.
‘That’s right. I was working with the Second Officer. He was teaching me sail-handling. I liked Mr Ho better, but Second Officer Burke liked me. Said I would make a good sail-handler. Pity there’s no more ships like Goodman Richard left. I born too late, like grandmother Chung say...’
‘I see. So you can tell us about Goodman Richard’s sails?’
‘Yes, ma’am. Goodman Richard was a four-masted square-rigged sailing ship. She was ship rigged with five square sails per mast but she did not have spankers up. During time we worked her, we learned to rig and reef all jibs. Staysails on bowsprit and all masts. Sail, topsails, topgallant and royal on foremast, main mast, mizzen mast and jigger. We were up and down like monkeys when the weather was calm, but less so in bad weather. If the forecast was bad we usually took the sails off her and relied on the engine.’
‘But not that day?’
‘Engine stopped working. Water in fuel. Water every damn where that day.’
‘So Captain Jones was relying on sailing out of trouble?’
‘Seem like it. But even so...’
‘You have doubts?’
‘Maybe Captain and Second Officer they had a cunning plan, you know? Maaaaaaybe...’ May drew out the last word sceptically.
‘Can you explain?’
‘Storm coming. They need storm sails up. Maybe reefed foresail. Maybe storm jib. That’s what I think. Give her handling, hold her safe. Maybe that’s what they plan but they just too slow, you know? Squall hit from South West, then back Easterly really fast. And they had all the wrong sails up. They have royals and topgallants on all masts. Full out, not reefed. No topsails or mainsails. You see? Royals right at the top of the mast. Topgallants next down but also high, high, high up mast. All wind’s power hit right up at tip top of masts. Nothing down below to balance. Over she goes one way, bad roll. Big sea come up that side and threaten to swamp her altogether. Masts flex. Rigging strain. Hold together because the whole hull rolled right over with them. I thinking May, better blow up your lifejacket. But then back-wind. Great gust from the east - exactly the opposite way! You see? Ship’s hull still under westerly seas. Hull not roll back to compensate. No big sails low down to hold her steady. All sails up top. Wind took them and ripped them right out. No flexing. No straining. Whole lot gone by the board. Sails, spars, rigging and masts. Wham! Bang! Gone! Just like that.’
Carver Carpenter rose a few minutes later after Maggie - having elicited a translation and clarified a few more points for the jury - sat.
‘Miss Chung, may I ask what qualifications in ship-
handling you hold?’
‘I am not qualified. I not even get the certificate Second Officer promised.’ May suddenly looked very young, like a child disappointed by Father Christmas.
‘I see. And how many other sailing ships have you crewed?’
‘None. Goodman Richard first. And, likely, last.’
‘Very well, then may I ask how long you served on Goodman Richard?’
‘Six months.’
‘You certainly seem to have picked up a lot of knowledge in that time.’
‘I’m a fast learner.’
‘I don’t doubt it. But still and all, Miss Chung, one must ask oneself, would even a fast learner learn to recognize a badly maintained rope, faulty rigging, weakened wood at the point where the masts went into the mast-holes in the deck?’
May opened her mouth to reply but Carver Carpenter proceeded ruthlessly. ‘Because, you see, everything that you so vividly described - what of it I fully understood amongst the jargon - surely could have happened because the Captain expected the upper works to take the battering they received. A battering they received, it seems from your account, while he and the Sail Handler tried to assess the risks of sending your watch up to shorten the sail. Or perhaps even to rig the sails that you yourself suggested. But, fatally weakened through failures of maintenance, health and safety, they simply did not. They snapped and broke and went by the board, as you said, because they were old and rotten and weak.’