Claim Titanic Not Seaworthy

FIRST TIME SUGGESTION IS MADE SINCE DISASTER

Plea Advanced by Injured Employee of Liner Which Went Down After Collision With Iceberg - Assert Negligence Also

By Associated Press

London, Jan 15 -  The plea that the Titanic was unseaworthy when she left England in April, 1912 on her disastrous maiden trip to the United States which cost the lives of more than 1,500, is to be advanced in a suit for damages against the White Star Line by Thomas Whiteley, a steward, who suffered a broken leg in the wreck.  Whiteley's counsel, Allen Clement Edwards, a lawyer-member of parliament, will also argue on behalf of his client that there was negligence in the steering of the vessel.

The hearing has been provisionally fixed for March 1.

This will be the first time that a suggestion in regard to the unseaworthiness of the Titanic has been raised in the courts.  Whiteley, while lying in a New York hospital after the wreck, declared that the officers of the Titanic had disregarded the warning of the lookout that icebergs were in the vicinity.