TRANSPORTATION: Fairfax Cleared

On a foggy night last June the Fairfax of Merchants & Miners Transportation Co. rammed, exploded and sent to the bottom of Massachusetts Bay the gasoline tanker Pinthis (TIME, June 23). Fire and water killed 50, including all hands on the Pinthis. Wild tales by semi-hysterical passengers landed in Boston prompted the U. S. Steamboat Inspection Service to file four charges against Captain Archibald H. Brooks, master of the Fairfax: 1) excessive speed in a fog; 2) violation of pilot rules; 3) unskillfulness; 4) negligence. His trial by a Federal board of inspectors began in Boston where local feeling was strongly against him and was later transferred to Norfolk, Va.*

Last week the trial board reconstructed the disaster from the evidence, acquitted Captain Brooks of all four charges. It concluded that the Fairfax was traveling at 3 knots, the Pinthis at 7½ when they collided, that nobody heard any fog signals from the Pinthis, that Captain Brooks handled his helm and engines correctly. Declared the board: "Had the master executed any other maneuver than what he did, both vessels would have been sunk and possibly all lives lost."

Though Captain Brooks was cleared by the Steamboat Inspection Service, Boston was not satisfied with the verdict. The U.S. District Attorney there moved to put the whole case before the Federal Grand Jury with a view to indicting Skipper Brooks.