THE "QUEEN MARY."

(1946) 80 Ll.L.Rep. 609

COURT OF APPEAL.

Before Lord Justice Scott, Lord Justice Bucknill and Lord Justice Wrottesley, sitting with Rear-Admiral H. D. Hamilton and Captain W. P. Townshend, Nautical Assessors.

Collision - Single ship convoy - Escort - Respective rights and duties - Overtaking - Seamanship - Look-out - Collision between H.M.S. Curacoa and steamship Queen Mary in Atlantic Ocean in broad daylight - Curacoa acting as protective escort to Queen Mary - Queen Mary on zigzag course known to Curacoa, and overtaking Curacoa in spite of zigzag - Manoeuvres by Curacoa to keep herself within limits of Queen Mary's zigzag - Starboard leg of zigzag undertaken by Queen Mary when Curacoa was a little forward of her starboard beam and about a mile distant - Converging courses - Porting by Queen Mary when vessels about two cables apart, followed by hard-a-porting when they were about one cable apart - Allegation by Curacoa that order "Starboard 15 deg." was given when ships were about four cables apart - Evidence of port wheel action taken before collision - Reason for porting unexplained - Interaction - Impact between stem of Queen Mary and port side of Curacoa - Curacoa sunk - Consideration of correlative duties of escort and her faster convoy - Collision Regulations, Arts. 21, 27, 29.