Waldo William Porges

JOHN ALDRED

24 May 2016, 08:14

As an addendum to my original submission on Waldo Porges He was a Lloyds Arbitrator (one of a panel of 5 at the time) who held up to 25 arbitrations a year assessing the amount to be paid by shipowners whose vessels occasionally required the assistance of salvors. Such causes requiring salvage services were engine breakdown (which could not be resolved by the crew on board) and structural damage through bad weather or simply "springing" a leak. He was also on the panel of wreck commissioners who from time to time were appointed by the Treasury Solicitor to determine the cause of the loss of vessels - usually small vessels where there was loss of life (trawlers etc) and in one such case a trawler sailing out of Hull was lost in the North Sea. He conducted the inquiry and evidence was presented by the Crown and Owners. I attended that case with him as I was concerned for his health (chronic diabetes already referred to) as he was away from familiar home surroundings for a number of days. The vessel was a modern trawler (in those days) and had extensive radar and wireless aerials and was of the variety which hauled in the catch by opening the stern and drawing the loaded nets into the hold. The case attracted great publicity because the wives - all of whom lost their husbands and sons on board expressed the view that the trawler was being used as a spy ship on North Sea activity (Russia) and trawling was an ancilliary activity. I personally was accosted by wives brandishing all sorts of weapons and physically threatened with scarcely disguised suggestions what would happen if the court (president Waldo Porges) did not reach a conclusion that the vessel had been seized by the Russians and the British Government should intervene. Waldo concluded that no such event had occurred and at the time of his decision it was very stormily received around Hull. He concluded that the vessel had been overcome by a wave while the stern was open and the vessel lost by reason of ingress of water. His decision was ratified 15 years later when the vessel was found by a survey ship in the North Sea laying on the bottom - with the stern open. He was involved in many cause celebre but the stranding off Lands End of the Torry Canyon springs to mind. This was the case where the heavily laden tanker was leaking oil to the Cornish and South Wales coast to such an extent that the Government of the day ordered the vessel to be drestroyed by bombing by the RAF. There was huge repercusions because Salvors had spent a considerable time and expense attempting to save the ship. Under the terms of Lloyds arbitrations the parties signed an agreement that in the event of the salvors nit succeeding is saving the vessel there would be no remuneration to them. It was affectionally known as a"Lloyds Form - No Cure No Pay". It advantaged both salvors and salvaged alike and was a popular method of determaning the reward. Many other cases can be found from archives searching under the name of the vessel in question

JOHN ALDRED

03 May 2016, 13:18

I was his clerk in the latter stages of his life. He was a chronic diabetic and retired prematurely because he was losing his sight. He lived at Capel in Surrey with his wife who was a friend of Edith Sitwell. Mrs Porges and Edith Sitwell met occasionally and read poetry to each other. Waldo and his wife in later years moved to Craven Arms as Waldo wanted to become "familiar" with smaller surroundings before he eventually went blind. I lost contact with him and his wife and was mortified to learn of his death many years ago and now disappointed to find little is known of this man. I can expand on several of the cases he appeared in but his career was destroyed as in the year that he took "silk" - became a QC - he lost his practice through illness - diabetis