The Alastor - Lord Justice Stephenson, Lord Justice Dunn and Sir David Cairns - C.A. - Mar. 6, 1981

Limitation of liability - Owner negligent in his capacity as master or chief engineer

The respondent’s yacht, Alastor , collided with the appellant’s yacht Dona Pila 1 in Valletta harbour on July 24, 1975. The respondent was shifting his vessel to her normal berth. He cast off his stern mooring and worked his engines slow ahead with his wheel hard-a-port to swing her stern away from the quay. When she was angled about 40 deg. to the quay he cast off forward and went gently astern on his engines with his wheel amidships. He intended to put the engines ahead and wheel hard-a-starboard to complete the manoeuvre. However, when he moved the control lever appropriately to work the engines ahead, the Alastor began to move more rapidly astern and struck the Dona Pila 1 . The wheel-house control system was connected to the engine room control lever by morse controls. The clevis pin, a vital part of the connection between the morse controls and the engine room control, had become dislodged, and the morse controls thereby disconnected from the control level. A split pin should have been in position through a small hole at one end of the clevis pin thereby holding it in position, but no such pin was ever found. The respondent had considerable knowledge of engineering and had maintained the engines himself.