EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPE OF A VESSEL.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XXI, Issue 3072, 24 January 1894, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPE OF A VESSEL.

One of tbe most remarkable escapes on record of aa entire ship's crew from a watery graye in mid-ocean, is chronicled in mail advice* from the Orient. Tbe steamer Swordsman, bound for Mauritius, and tbe steamer Gelderland, on her way to Aden, came into collision just below the equator. Tbe Swordsman sank, but the Gelderland managed to reach Colombo after an experience probably unparalleled in the history of riatigatioo. The -story oati hardly be appreciated without illustrations ■ showing the Gelderland- s condition after toe disaster,; and when she reached port. Imagine a trig ship of 2,000 tons with her stem torn clean away, with her starboard bow plates completely store in, and with the enormous hole stopped with planking held in position by bags of rice hanked against it. On the port side the bow-platen were displaced, for in the collision the nose of the steamer was borne rifcut round and bent completely out of its proper position. To keep these plates from escaping great iron chains had to be passed out through the port side and carried around the nose of the steamer and back again through openings on the starboard side, as one would bind up with ropes the loose staves of a broken barrel. Bearing this condition of affairs in mind the reader can understand what a terrible time the ship's crew must have gone through, and what great tactical skill must have been displayed by her commander, Captain Sedboer, in getting her anjdf the bulk of the cargo safely to port The captain states that in the emergency her bulkhead arrangements di<T not fail to serve the purpose for which they were intended, but they alone were far from sufficient. To stop up the hole, cargo was taken out of the forehuld and, piled against the remaining ■pi ates, but two' or three times i this aud the temporary stay Werecdmpletely washed uway, when at lenjjfth a stop-gap hadtnieh effected the voyage could only be undertaken with the greatest caution, and tfcfc dexterity of the officers was •gterety tested in so encountering tb§ watet' that they should not injure the patched up part. . Bough weather was twice met with in the voyage of 3,200 miles, which occupied thirteen days, a- d for safety the ship had to be put broadside on to some seas, and nearly stern, first to others. The Gelderland was owned by the Hotterdamsch Lloyd, add the Swordsman carried every soul on board to the bottom with her. ' .'