Avas
I asked Mohanq if the Master was authorized to do so and he asserted that such was the case. I thereupon observed that, if so, he must have been called upon in the course of his business to pay similar expenses, and I should like to see a statement of them. He replied that he had often done so, and at my request sent some of those bills. I now inclose two of them as Enclosure No4, illustrating the system followed in the regular course of the trade and proving the complete neglect of the Master.
As however the fact of the latter's diminishing the rations on the day after leaving port seemed to prove that he had some interest in saving the stores, I inquired to whom any surplus at the end of the voyage would belong. Mohong at once replied to himself or his Agent at the vessel's port of arrival - and that it was expressly so agreed in the Charter Party. I therefore insisted on seeing the Charter Party. He procured it for me and I now enclose a copy of it, and at page ... Your Lordship will find the stipulation in question most clearly set forth. This renders the Master's conduct all the more inexplicable for whilst he might have taken some amount of provisions from the Cargo at the Charterers' expense, he could not possibly have profited by economising the stores which had been put on board.
Therefore I presume he had managed, before sailing, fraudulently to dispose of part of the provisions.