A9 - Sunday, June 12, 1983 - North Shore News ‘Vessel’ definition crucial for conviction FROM PAGE A1 leaked into the drydock and the seepage then went into Burrard Inlet. On the third and final day, counsel for the Star Luzon and the ship’s master, Lachlan Morrison, asked marine surveyor Thomas Morgan about the hole he saw in the ship's side when it was drydocked. “I measured the opening, quite particularly in regard to the actual aperture. It calculated out 19.5 square inches.” Morgan said the hole was just where the bilge section curves at the bottom of the - ship. Morgan also inspected the permanent anti-pollution boom around the drydock. He found part of it in- complete, he said. “One of the sections had turned around 180 degrees sO it Was not properly in the water,” he stated. Crown counsel Paul Halpnn questioned Morgan about whether he thought a hole in the hull should be considered a reportable defi- ciency. Morgan agreed and also agreed when Halprin put it to him that if he had been the freighter’s captain he would have reported it to Tofino ship control as a deficiency. “I think I would report it, yes.” he said. Later, much evidence concerned the question of whether or not the drydock was a ship. For the purposes of the prosecution, under the Canada Shipping Act, the drydock had been charged as the Vessel Burrard Yar- rows. Halpnn claimed the com- pany had described the dry- dock as a sp and said it was covered under the Canada Shipping Act as a vessel. Dad “A floating drydock is a vessel not unlike a huge open-ended barge,” he said. Burrard’s counsel, Peter Bernard, submitted that the drydock was nota ship. Referring to the fact that it had been towed originally from Japan where it was made, Bernard said: “The mere fact of towing a thing from one place to another does not make it a ship.” Bernard added: “In my submission the drydock in the course of that voyage was not really a ship involv- ed in navigation. It was merely cargo.” Quoting another case in- volving a floating drydock that regularly moved 150-200 feet for lifting ships, he said the judge in that case had been concerned whether or not the movement’ con- stituted a voyage. In the end that judge held that it did not, and added that had it been in a fixed location, as was the case, pointed out Bernard, with the Burrard Y arrows facility, then there would have been no question in his mind that it was nota ship. Bernard said there were many similarities between that drydock and the one in this case. Both had fixed shore anchors and cables, electncal shore power, no galley or sleeping quarters. Halprin, for the Crown, said that the Canada Shipp- ing Act had a “catch-all” sec- tion for vessels and therefore the Burrard Yarrows drydock was covered by it. On the question of liabili- ty. Bernard said his client Burrard Yarrows, acting on information from the Star Luzon, had_ exercised reasonable care in the dry- docking. “The main point that | make is that with respect to Burrard Yarrows, given that information they did exactly what they should have done.” Morrison, for the Star Luzon and the captain, said that the Crown had not pro- ven that there was any danger from the hull's condi- uon. “There has to be a danger before you have to report. You don't have to report a deficiency in your hull.” In closing argument, Mor- rison added that if the dry- dock was held not to be a ship then the Star Luzon when it was drydocked should not also. He concluded: “I say that any evidence that Burrard acted reasonably is just naive and wishful thinking after an embarassing acci- dent.” Better safe than sorry A REPORT to the police by a woman suspecting a break- in was occurring at her neighbor's home recently led to RCMP finding two suspects on the premises at the home on Donegal. But the suspects turned out to be nothing more threatening than a couple of electrical contractors mak- ing repairs at the home. Even so, the police are glad the neighbor bothered to call and a spokesman said: “Those kind of calls we don't mind at all. It really shows people are caring about their neighbors.” ¢)) Keep Canada Beautiful ™ Distinctively for you at James Brodie! Pewter Tankard 29” I all Ships tdi Ball Set 2 1° Manner Shorts trom france Carrera Porsche Sunglasses 219” Caran d Ache Writing Set 72°.° Leather Boz blask 62°° Service on the North Shore since 1955 COMBINED SERVICES wo. 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