ALL SAVED!

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 195, 19 August 1930, Page 9

ALL SAVED!

TAHITI'S COMPLEMENT.

MAGNIFICENT BOAT WORK.

HOST OP LIGHT MAIL INTACT.

L4ST OF THE X)LD SHIP.

Had it not b?en for the marvel of 'fireless the Tahiti might have vanished ** completely and as mysteriously as We WarataL Even experienced erigin- •■■• *ttsand shipmasters are at a loss to .Visualise the accident that sent the big 3wd Fnnnel mailship to the bottom. Slips have lost their propellers before May - , hut the mishap never meant such a sudden ending to a well-found, feaworthy craft. Communication Difficulties. There k no use speculating, iowever. Tahiti has gone to the bottom, and e will have to wait for the explanaPeople cannot understand why •""** particulars were not wirelessed ?wnt the mishap, but there is a pos■■?We emanation of the apparent silence et J this point. During the daytime , P?f«les3 communication with, the lost TOel -was precarious, and it is quite that of these doubtPeriods the ship sent out a message the particulars everyone wants, 'Rowing to the condition of the atmos:^aere it was only received in the brief ""tf unsatisfactory manner it which, it 446 been published. The most we can *?u that it is understood that the I *&tt lost a propeller, and in some I caused an exceptional leak, which ; got so bad that nothins could i the fihip. though brief, the captain's message I q lO minutes to 11 on Monday morning, ; ? P a ssengers are now on board the Hituia/' told a whole story of quiet and thrill for the passengers. : is no doubt the end must have .;JJ» quicker than was expected TV-hen ■•J* Penybryn first came up with the

N Dramatically Sudden. However, the damage must have developed quicker "than was expected'or the transference of her people would not have been left until so close to her disappearance.

Fortunately tho transfer between the ships was made in daylight; one does not care to dwell on the horrible story that would probably have to be told had the operation- been undertaken during the darkness.

Also-fortunately the weather in the Pacific in the region where the mishap occurred is generally fine, except in the hurricane season, and though boating the big crowd of "people off must have been arduous it might have been much worse. The wireless message speaks only of the starboard boats being launched. The reason is obvious. With an increasing list to starboard, that is to the right, the boats on the port side would be useless, as launching them would be an impossibility at even a smaller angle than the Tahiti must have assumed.

Even in daylight and fair weather the feat of transferring such a crowd of people between the ships, the doomed, Red Funnel ship with a drunken list, and the hovering American ship, her Tail lined with excited pas.sengers and crew, must have been a fine feat.

It was really Friday morning at 4 o'clock that the unexplained accident happened to the Tahiti. In trying to reconstruct the scene it must be remembered that the Tahiti was the other side of the 180 th meridian and that she was therefore one day behind Xew Zealand; in the matter of reckoning time. It i<s therefore better to use the Xew Zealand time and fix the accident on Saturday morning at 4 o'clock. Waiting for the Ventura. As the Norwegian steamer Penybryn,! bound from Cuba to Auckland with sugar, was only 90 miles away,.she was first on the scene in answer to the wireless 4 call, and she arrived on Saturday Obviously the captain of fhe Tahiti did not then deem that the ship's end was so near, or he would not have decided to wait for the American mail steamer Ventura -which was rushing to his aid, or he would nave at once transferred his passengers and mail. Some people ask why the mails were not transferred to the Penybryn in any case, but the fact that they were not strengthens the belief that events happened much more guickly than was expected when the Norwegian arrived arid stood-by. Information as to the transfer of the Tahiti's passengers-and crew to the American mail steamer are tantalisingly meagre. The Tahiti began to take a list to starboard soon after the leak asserted itself in the shaft-tunnel. Water found its way into the engine-room, and thence by some unexplained means into the ship's holds.

The Bulkhead Holds Up. There must have been great relief when it wa« found £hat the engine-room bulkhead had not actually carried away, but had merely buckled. 2\o wonder the Tahiti's passengers, when answering the Govertoor-Geueral's message of sympathy, wirelessed their appreciation of the "magnificent devotion to duty of the commander and crew." It was 9 a.m. yesterday that the hopeless task of keeping the Tahiti afloat was abandoned. "Pumps stopped; launching the starboard boats," was the laconic message flashed through the air. A Great Feat. It must have been a busy and anxious time during the next two hours as the boats plied between the two ships. Xo doubt the Ventura helped with her own boats, but even then the task was herculean. It does not take much of a swell to make boat work dangerous. Not a Hie wasiost, and ihe crew even had time to save some of the mail. It must be realised that while the crew

were busy getting the passengers across the intervening stretch of water there must have been a number of hands still on the sinking ship; all on board were not transferred until the tropic day was drawing to a close. Then, at about five o'clock, tli J» 'ahiti gave a drunken lurch and went under, stern first. All Safe! Tlie Ventura, with her augmented personnel, turned round and headed for Pago Pago, and some time before the Norwegian tramp, which had bee'n standing by for so long, headed south and will no doubt have a great story to tell when she arrives at Auckland in a few days.

It is useless to speculate why the mails were not taken off the Tahiti and put on the Penybryn. As it was, the cre\v must have done well to save the greater part of the letter mail. Even some of the light luggage of the passengers was transferred to the Ventura. Heavy mail and heavy baggage went down with the Tahiti.

When a tally of the mails was taken it was found that six were missing and fifty were damaged by water —a small loss when one thinks of the danger and difficulty of handling awkward bags in a swell.

Thus ended the forty-eight-hour struggle of officers and crew against the mysterious leak. It seems to have been a heroic fight. Even in the scrappy messages that have come floating tlirough the air it stirs the blood and makes everyone proud of the Tahiti's =plendid officers and crew—many of them New Zealanders and several of them Aucklanders, which makes our int€rest in their heroism all the more vivid. Just in Time. According to a message received by Commander Nelson Clover of H.M.s. Philomel from H.M.s. Veronica, which is up in the Islands on her usual winter cruise, the Ventura expects to arrive at Pago Pago to-morrow with the Tahiti's passengers and crew. The Penybryn, which was short of coal, and had under 100 tons when ehe came up with the Tahiti, is making for Suva, evidently to bunker. The message, adds that she "was afraid to face a south-westerly gale in the Pacific."

In that message lies the one note to make people realise what a terrible disaster was averted through the weather holding up while the delicate work of transferring the Tahiti's people: to the rescuing Ventura was carric-d out. Had the south-westerly gale sprung up a couple of days sooner the ether might have borne news of a great tragedy instead of a great feat performed with herokni.