The Wreck Of The Mary Deare

The next stage of the voyage was uneventful, but Patch was taken through it in detail and the picture that emerged was of a conscientious officer doing his best to pull a ship’s company together with the presence of the owner a constant irritant. The incidents that came to light under Holland’s steady questioning were trivial enough in themselves — the crew’s mess table uncleaned between meals, cockroaches, several men lousy, the galley dirty, a lifeboat without provisions, a man injured in a fight, the engines stopped for the replacement of a bearing that had been allowed to run hot — but together they produced an impression of a ship that was badly served by the men who ran her.

Other things emerged, too. The log was improperly kept, the wells not sounded regularly, water consumption unchecked, and as often as not it was Higgins, by then acting as first officer, who was responsible. Patch showed that he was coming to depend more and more on his second officer, John Rice, and the growing sense of comradeship between the two men ran like a strong thread through the evidence.

Twice Patch referred to Dellimare. Once of his own accord, when he was dealing with the lack of supervision of the engine-room staff. ‘He was encouraging Mr Burrows, my chief engineer, in his poker playing. I had to insist that he stopped entertaining Mr Burrows in his cabin. They were playing cards together till all hours of the night and it was throwing undue responsibility upon Mr Raft, the second engineer.’

‘Did Mr Dellimare raise any objection?’ Holland asked.

‘Yes.’

‘What did he say?’

‘He said it was his ship and he would do what he damn’ well liked and entertain any of the officers he pleased when he pleased.’

‘And what did you say to that?’

‘That it was endangering the safety of the ship and the morale of the engine-room and that I was the captain, not him, and the ship would be run the way I wanted it run.’

‘In other words you had a row?’

‘Yes.’

‘And did he agree to stop playing poker with the chief engineer?’

‘In the end, yes.’

‘In the end? You used some persuasion?’

‘Yes. I told him I had given Mr Burrows a direct order and that, if it wasn’t obeyed, I should know what action to take. And I made it a direct order as far as he was concerned.’

‘And he accepted that?’

‘Yes.’

‘Will you tell the Court what your relations with Mr Dellimare were at this stage?’

Patch hesitated. He had revealed that his relations with the owner were strained. He could in one sentence explain the reason for those strained relations and in doing so gain the sympathy of the whole court. But he let the opportunity go, merely saying, ‘We did not see eye-to-eye on certain matters.’ And Holland left it at that.

A further reference to Dellimare occurred almost accidentally. Patch had just assured the Court that he ITS had personally checked all four holds as the ship ran into heavy weather off the coast of Portugal, and Holland, again being scrupulously fair to him, drew attention to the fact that he hadn’t relied on his first officer’s report to make sure that there could be no shifting of the cargo. ‘You didn’t trust him, in other words?’

‘To be honest, no.’

‘Did Mr Higgins, in fact, check the holds?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘You thought so little of him that you didn’t even ask whether he had checked them?’

‘Yes, I suppose that is correct.’

‘Did anybody, other than yourself, check the holds?’

Patch paused a moment before replying. Then he said, ‘I think Mr Dellimare checked them.’

‘You think he checked them?’

‘Well, he was in Number One hold when I went in through the inspection hatch to check. I presumed that he was there for the same purpose as myself.’

Holland seemed to consider this for a moment. ‘I see. But this was the duty of one of the ship’s officers. It seems odd that the owner should find it necessary to check the cargo himself. Have you any comment to make on that?’

Patch shook his head.

‘What sort of man was Mr Dellimare?’ Holland asked. ‘What was your impression of him?’

Now, I thought — now he’ll tell them the truth about Dellimare. It was the opening he needed. But he stood there, without saying anything, his face very pale and that nerve twitching at the corner of his mouth.

‘What I am trying to get at is this,’ Holland went on. ‘We are coming now to the night of March 16. On that night Mr Dellimare disappeared — lost overboard. Did you know that Mr Dellimare had been in the Navy during the war?’

Patch nodded and his lips framed the word ‘Yes’.

‘He served in corvettes and frigates, mainly in the Atlantic. He must have been through a great many storms.’ There was a significant pause, and then Holland said, ‘What was your impression of him, at this time, when you knew you were running into very heavy weather? Was he normal in every way?’

‘Yes, I think so.’ Patch’s voice was very low.

‘But you’re not certain.’

‘I didn’t know him very well.’