CRIPPLED BY GALE

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 141, 16 June 1928, Page 9

CRIPPLED BY GALE

NO STEERING GEAR

Master Manoeuvres Uralla Or Beach. ONE VESSEL STILL OVERDUE. (Receiv«vl rj nnon.) SYDNEY, this lay. Captain Obeirne, master <i' the Uralla. when interviewed, tr.d how the vessel weathered the fearuil gale off Sydney Heads on W ?Jne<day night. The blinding rain, he said, ruinod visibility for the whole night and a terrific sea overwhelmed th.- Uralla iu the early morning when off Newcastle, and smashed her steering gear. Captain OBeirne decided to beach the ves>cl rather than risk being driven on the rocks. He manoeuvred with the twin propellers, keeping the vessel from getting broadside on, and was able to make the beach, where she is lying with her back broken. The lifeboats were carried away, but the crew will be able to walk ashore to-day at low tide. All other shipping has been accounted for except the coastal steamer Caii"::bar, which is en route from !'• to Sydney. The vessel carrio.- : less and should have readied yesterday, but she may still be nn:n _ before the gale, which is moving towards the sea.

WHITE BAY'S FATE. Sole Survivor's Story Of Wreck. TWO VESSELS OVERDUE. SYDNEY, June 15. The sailor Guiseppi, the sole survivor of the crew of the small coastal steamer White Bay, which was wreckcd at Stockton Beach, near Newcastle, during the cyclonic gale which swept the New South Wales coast, was found wandering along the beach, supporting himself with a piece of wood. He said the White Bay went ashore once hut was washed off again. Five members ol her crew were standing on deck at the time, when a mountainous sea washed them off, and turned the vessel over. The survivor struck out for the shore, which he reached in an exhausted condition.