TAHITI SINKS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 262, 19 August 1930, Page 5

TAHITI SINKS

ALL ON BOARD SAVED END OF TWO DAYS' DRIFT. SOME MAIL-BAGS LOST. WEATHER FORTUNATELY CALM. The Union Steam Ship Company's Pacific liner Tahiti, 7585 tons, which lost a propeller early on Saturday morning, 460 miles from Rarotonga, sank yesterday after-' noon. All the passengers and the crew were then safe aboard the Ventura, which was proceeding to Pago Pago. Apart from six letter bags that were lost, and 50 that became wet, all the letter mail carried by the Tahiti was safely transferred to the Ventura. The newspapers, packets and parcels were abandoned. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, August 18. The liner Tahiti sank at 4.42 p.m. (Ventura's time), according to information received from the Union Steam Ship Company. All the passengers and the crew were transferred to the Ventura this morning in safety, with portion of the mails and part of their baggage. . Fortunately the weather remained fine and the sea was so calm -that the Ventura was able to go alongside the stricken liner and facilitate the difficult operation of transference. The passengers .needed eight boats to cross the short distance between the two steamers. When that had been accomplished without any untoward incident occurring, the crew were taken on Transhipment of the mails presented some little difficulty. Fortunately the bags had been stored in. the fore part of the Tahiti and had not been affected by the inrush of ..water when the mishap occurred. Unfortunately six bags of letter mail were lost in transit, and 50 bags fell into the sea and were affected by water. By this time the Tahiti was obviously settling and itj was found necessary to abandon the bags containing newspapers, packets and parcels. Mowever with the exception of the six bags 'mentioned, the letter mail, was transferred safely. As soon as the last was seen of the Tahiti the Ventura turned toward Pago Pago (American Samoa), where it is intended that the passengers for the Islands and the crew will be disembarked. From Pago Pago the Ventura will proceed to San Francisco with the passengers for America and Europe, and mails. ~ _ The Union Steam Ship Company s ship Tofua has been diverted to pickup the passengers and crew landed at Pago Pago. ,

FIGHT TO SAVE THE SHIP.

EFFORT AT TEMPORARY REPAIRS.

AUCKLAND, August 18. Determined efforts to save the stricken Tahiti were continued even though the passengers had been transferred. All members of the crew not immediately required in attempts to effect temporary repairs were trans r ferred to the Ventura, and when it was seen that all who could be spared were in. safetv, the work was continued. The vessel was in a serious plight, with a big list, though it did not appear to have been much altered during the night, but the affected bulkhead was bulging badly. While the fight was in progress to keep the inflow ot water down and, if possible, block the leak, the Ventura stood by, until at last, at 2 p.m., it was seen that there was no hope for the Tahiti, and Captain Totem and his last boatload ot men were taken on board the Ventura The Ventura then stood by until the ill-fated vessel took her final'plunge. MAILS REARRANGED. DISPATCH FROM LONDON. WELLINGTON, This Day. The Secretary to the General lost Office advises that owing to the loss of R M.S. Tahiti, the letter portion ot the mails for Great Britain which were dispatched by that vessel on August 12 have been transferred to the Ventura and will now reach/London on approximately September 14. It is further announced that a request has been made to the London Post Office to dispatch by S.S. ltnngitata which is due to depart from Southampton on August 29 mail S ,for New Zealand that would . have been Awarded to connect at San Francisco with the Tahiti on September 3. These mails are now due to arrive in Wellington on October 1, instead of September 22. .

CAUSE OF THE DISASTER. THEORY BY AUCKLAND ENGINEERS. AUCKLAND, August 18. The theory advanced for the cause of the mishap to the Tahiti is that the bearings I'irough the hull and in the ballast tank .bulkhead have been fractured, or twisted, to such an extent that there has been a free flow ot water past the tank into the tunnel abaft the engine-room. , In the absence of definite information, marine engineers in Auckland could advance only .speculative opinions as to the possible causes of the mishap. The consensus of opinion was that the tail shaft had fractured near the stern, and the propeller, still fastened to the broken end of the shaft, hacf pulled out and was lost The shafts of the Tahiti pass from the engine-room into a tunnel which runs the width of the ship, and which can be made watertight by the closing of a door in. the bulkhead. The tunnel allows the operation of oiling the bearings to be carried out, and may also he used for stores if desired. Aft of the tunnel i&the aft peak ballast tank, in which the shafts move in varying

quantities of water. From the aft peak tank the shafts pass through the hull to the propellers. ♦Speciallypacked collars round the shafts make the passages through the tank bulkhead and the hull watertight. The engineers said it was very seldom a tail shaft broke cleanly, the usual thing feeing for the broken ends to twist badly, making it impossible for the piece attached to the propeller to go overboaf d. In the case of a jagged break, the driving end would be whirled round at high speed until the engineers could throttle down. It would be possible for the broken end to crash through the bulkhead, and thus allow water to flow into the vessel. . One engineer said that if the weather had been rough and the propeller racing frequently, it was possible, although not likelv. that tbe propeller could be wrenched off bodily When the stern of the vessel crashed down on a wave. As the propeller would be moving in a clockwise direction it would naturally tend to travel forward while still in the air, and might crash against the stern and cause a severe leak. In this event the water might go either to the engine-room or to the hold. DUNEDIN ENGINEER'S THEORY. PUNEDIN, This Day v A former marinp engineer advances the possible theory that- one of the Tahiti's propellers struck some floating object, possibly a spar, the effect of which might easily be to drive the other end of the object with terrific velocity against the hull plates, penetrating a vital part and possibly involving serious damage to the bulkhead. SYDNEY ENGINEERS MYSTIFIED. SYDNEY, August 18. Officials of Mort's Dock, where the Tahiti was last overhauled, are unable' to offer any theory of the cause of the breakdown,' from the limited information available. They are mystified by the over-, whelming inrush of water when the watertight door shoukd have checked it and saved the engine-room. They can only surmise that a break of some unusual character did such sudden and extensive damage that the engineers were powerless to cope with it. No accident, producing a similar result has been recorded. REPLACING THE TAHITI. MAUNGANUI TO TAKE UP • SERVICE. WELLINGTON, August 18. The Union Company announces that the Maunganui, at present engaged in the New Zealand-Sydney service, will take the Tahiti's running in the San Francisco service. The Marama, at present laid up at Wellington, owing to slackness in the intercolonial passenger service, will take the Maunganui s place in that service. The Maunganui will commence her new running from Sydney on October 2, the date on which" the Tahiti would have left on her next .trip to Ban Francisco. The Marama will pick up the Maunganui s running in the . intercolonial service from Auckland, leaving that port .on September 26 for Sydney. The Tofua is returning to Nukuolofa', and is due there on Wednesday mornino- On her run round the Islands she wiTl call at Pago Pago and pick up the Tahiti's officers and crew, and is now to leave Suva on August 30 for Auckland, where she is due on September 4, three days later than usual. / . WEIGHT OF THE PROPELLER. EFFECT OF BREAKAGE EXPLAINED. Some interesting comment on the loss of the R.M.S. Tahiti was made today by Mr George Welch, of the Ashburton .Electric Power Board s stall, who was' at one time an engineer on the vessel. In an interview with a representative of the "Guardian, Mr Welch said: The diameter of the propeller was 17ft 3in, having a pitch ot 21ft 6in and a sv»face of 90 square feet The weight of the propeller boss was 4 tons 2 cwt, and the weight ot one blade 2 tons 6 cwt. Therefore the total weight of the propeller—l 3 blades and boss —was 11 tons. • The tail ■ shaft, which in breaking probably c;fcised the loss of the ship, had a length of 23ft 7in, a diameter of 18 5-Bin at the A frame bearing, and a weight .of 9 tons 5 cwt. The ship would probably be gorng at a speed of 13£ knots, and the revolutions of the propeller would be between 60 and 70 per minute, so one can quite understand that if the shaft broke between the A frame bearing and the' - stern tape, the propeller and a portion of the shaft would drop to the bottom of the ocean; the part inside the ship's tunnel would sag, and before the engj'es * could be stopped from racing, the shaft would knock a hole through the tunnel into the ship s hold. The water would rush, in through the stern gland (a-hole 18m in diameter), and would soon find its way into the ship's hold. Then, it bulkheads did not. stand the pressure, the ship would slowly fill and sink.