NEARLY SINKING.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 35, 11 February 1891, Page 2

NEARLY SINKING.

THE BARQUE SHARPSHOOTER. A PERILOUS EXPERIENCE. A fey/ days ago a cable message from Sydney gave brief intelligence of tho narrow escape of the well-known iron barque Sharpshooter, of Mr J. C. Ellis' line, from foundering oft tho Australian coast, while bound from Newcastle to New Caledonia. She was picked up by a tug on the _4th inst. oti Sydney Heads, and brought into Port Jackson in safety. A Sydney report of the perilous experience of the Sharpshooter says :— Never perhaps will the barque Sharpshooter bo nearer disappearing, without absolutely going down, thanshewaslasb Tuesday, when nob a hundred miles oOt this coast. How near she was to foundering may be judged from the fact that the captain, describing the position, says : " She was all by the head, the water having all rushed forward, and after rising, aa on the top of three seas, she took a dive, and it was on the tip of my tongue to sing out, 'Jump for tho boats; she's going.'" The barque made port last evening (4th inst.), the crew pumping to the last. She was first seen away to the eastward of the Heads by the Union Company's steamer TeKapo, inward bound from New Zealand. The Te Kapo, seeing distress signals flying on a smart-looking barque-rigged vessel, might almost have supposed there was some mistake, and this impression would deepen upon drawing closer, and after making out that the craft was an iron barque, to all appearances as staunch a little vessel as one could wish to meet. The delusion, if it ever existed in the minds of those on board the steamer, was speedily dispelled on seeing tho exhausted crew working at the pumps, and the water running through the scuppers of the Sharpshooter. It required also very few minutes to be informed that the barque bad SPRUNG A LEAK, and required some assistance. TheTe Kapo made an oiler to cither stand by or assist the vessel to port, but, says Captain Davies, who is "in command of the waterladen barque, " Just at that time the sea commenced to go down, and with the wind fair I thought 1 should be in port almost as soon as the steamer, so I thanked the captain and decided to keep on." Off Sydney Heads one of the P.J.S.S. Company's tugs was cruising on tho look-out for anything that might heave in sight, and when the Sharpshooter's lofty spars were seen above the horizon the well known powerful tug Port Jackson made for the approaching vessel. Cantain Davies was no doubt glad to see the tug, and took the proflered tow. The story Captain G. F. Davies had to tell was a thrilling one. His troubles did not extend over a voyage of many thousands of miles, occupying a long period of time, but while they lasted they were as bad as could be, and as he pointedly expresses it, would "turn a young man's hair grey quickly." He left Newcastle on tho Ist inst. for Noumea with a cargo of coal; the barque fresh out of dock, and as far as observation could detect as sound as a bell. During all Monday forenoon, when two days out, the wind was gradually freshening, and by 11 a.m. the sea had risen and become much confused owing to the strong current. The barque commenced to labour terribly about noon, for by that time the sea was absolutely dangerous. So severely was the vessel rolling and pitching the precaution was taken to try the pumps, and the discovery was made that tho Sharpshooter had no less than 2ft of water in tho well. By a quarter to two the same (Monday) afternoon the second officer found 7ft of water in the well, but this was corrected after by the captain, who ascertained the quantity to be 6ft6in. This announcement was the immediate signal for all hands to be called aft and divided, some to shorten sail and some to start at the pumps. It was now a case of KEEPING THE SHIP AFLOAT. The weather was bad, that is, the ship Was being tumbled about co violently in the frightful sea running that no one knew the moment she would fill and carry all wibh her. After shortening sail " All hands to the pumps " was the order, and the men required no coaxing, for it was life or death. She was rolling both sides under, filling herself from fo'castle to cuddy, and the brave fellows working hard with tho water washing up to their armpits. Could the leak below be overtaken by the pumps ? That waa the vital question, and it mattered not how the sea? on deck might wash them about, the crew were bound to learn what their fate waa to be. It was no use looking to the shiD's boats, for they would not live a second in such a sea. Just as some impression was showing in a reduction in the well, the gearing of the pumps broke down. "Had it not been for the manly way those fellows stuck to the pumps," said the captain, "the ship must have gone down." A rough survey of the situation was made by the captain, in the hope of finding where the leak was, but without discovering anything. He also went forward to see whether anything had started there, and it was at this time that the Sharpshooter was carried on the top of three seas, as already mentioned, and book thab dive which everybody on board felt to be her last, and cried oub, "SHE'S GOING." In the meantime, finding nothing had started, and having repaired as well as he could the pump-gear, Ciptain Davies persuaded the crew to persevere ab the pumps as their only chance. It was dark now, and by one of those peculiarly inopportune accidents, the gearing again got out of order, and as the sea gave no sign of abatement, the ship's deck almost flush with the water, the crew being washed away repeatedly from the pumps, and torn, bruised, and battered in their bodies, it is no wonder Cautain Davies says ib was the most dreadf oi sight he ever beheld. A happy thought struck him, one which he felt nerved himself and in the wretched darkness of the night cheered up his despairing but still loyal crew. It was to clear away the lazaretto down aft in the saloon, and get down and open the sluice valve. By this means the water below would rush aft, and while the pumping gear was being fixed up again something could be done by baling with buckets towards keeping the water down below the foundering point. After considerable work this waa done, and every Bucket or other handy utensil was quickly in use All hands were kept at it passing the water out through thelazarette, and up through the cabin skylight. It was a dreary night's work, but it proved effectual and, said the Captain, " We found that by this means alone. WE COULD KEEP AFLOAT if the weather got no worse." Ab noon on Tuesday, the crew, having been on deck for fcwenty-four hours, were physically unable, they said, to stand up to the pumps. Much persuasion had to be used to get them to _*ep at it, and bravely they stuck to it, though none had escaped a severe knocking about. "The sea," says the captain, "was still running and topping, blowing off into spray, something like after _ hurricane." Throughout Tuesday afternoon and night it was pump, pump, pump. There was no cessation, one man relieving the other while a little food was obtained. At 9 o'clock on Wednesday morning a man was sent aloft to look out for a passing sail, and he shortly after descried smoke away out to the south-eastward. It proved to be the Te Kapo. The captain of the Sharpshooter declined to be assisted just then, but asked the Te Kapo to send a steam tug out from Sydney. In this way has terminated one of the most remarkable instances of c cape from shipwreck reported

for many years past. The vessel on arrival had all the appearance on deck of having been UNDER WATER for two days. Poop ladders washed away and deck fittings scattered in all directions, clearly point to the action of raging waters on deck. There are men on board laid up j sick from fatigue, and the knocking about they have suffered may be read in their i face 3. Some of them have nob had a wink ot sleep since last Sunday night. The | j barque is a well-known trader hailing out Jof Sydney. She i 3 the property of Mr J. IC. Ellis, and was formerly the Madeline, I built at Sunderland 30 years ago, by Oswald J and Co."