DISABLED IN GALE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 243, 14 October 1935, Page 10

DISABLED IN GALE.

STEERING GEAR GIVES WAY.

SPRINGBANK'S MISHAP.

During the height of a hurricane on the way from Japan to Nauru, the electro-hydraulic steering gear of the Bank Line motor ship Springbank brok« down and for 12 hours the vessel had to be steered with her engines. Though she was to some extent incapacitated in the high seas and the gale, no other damage was done. The Springbank arrived in Auckland at 7 a.m. yesterday.

The vessel took scrap iron to Japan from Boston and went to the port of Ivasoda for painting and cleaning. She cleared that port for Nauru on September 19 and experienced unsettled weather on the first day out. Then followed a spell of fine weather, but on the 24th the vessel found herself on the edge of a typhoon. The wind increased to hurricane force with heavy seas. It was when the storm was at its height that

the steering gear broke. It took the engineers 12 hours to set matters right.

By using the ship's twin screws as rudders the bows were kept head-on, but the fact that the Springbank was in ballast and therefore light made steering in that way difficult. The danger would have been to allow the vessel to "et broadside on.

However, no damage beyond the

steering gear was done and the vessel resumed her course. The following day the weather moderated and continued to do so as the Springbank drew away from the storm area.

At the island she loaded 8350 tons of phosphate, which will be unloaded at Auckland, New Plymouth and Wanganui. She has 2000 tons for Auckland.