KONINI WRECKED

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18263, 23 December 1924, Page 10

KONINI WRECKED

♦ MAIDEN VOYAGE ENDS IN DISASTER. ASHORE AT WHALE HEAD. COMPLETE LOSS FEARED. ■PEESS ASSOCIATION 7KuEG3.Ui.} IXVERCARGILL, December 22. About 2 o'clock this morning, in heavy rain and pitch the Union Steam Ship Company's Konini went ashore at Whale Head, or SouthWest Point, oti the coast at the back of Bluff Hill, about half a mile from Ocean Beach. The vessel was making about nine knots at the time of the disaster, and struck heavily on a ledge of rocks about two chains out from the ruggc-d coastline. There was, fortunateh", no wind, though a heavy swell was "running, and in the intense darkness the situation was sufficiently precarious. Four rockets were fired and the ship's whistle blown stcadilj. The distress signals were heard, and the Harbour Board's tug was immediately despatched from Bluff. She arrived off the sceno of the wreck about 4.20 a.m., and, standing out about a hundred yards, took off the crew, who left the Konini in the ship's boats. Thero was no loss of life and no casualty of anj kind, the men being able to take most of their personal effects with them. Subsequently the vessel settled down, her engine-room being full of water, with fairly deep water along one side, and is a complete wreck. There is considered to bo little prospect of her cargo being salvaged, though an attempt probably will be made to salvage a lot of her gear. Tho first southerly weather that arrives in all probability will break lier up. Captain Vint's Hl-Luck. The Konini, a new vessel of 1420 tons gross and 833 tons net register, was on her maiden voyage, her last port being Wallaroo, South Australia, where she loaded about 2000 tons of salt and gvpsum for Dunedin and northorn ew Zealand ports. The master, Captain S. Vint, who is familiar with the coast, and for years has had his Bluff pilotage exemption certificate, is regarded as a careful and competent mariner. The loss of the Konini is particularly unfortunate, inasmuch as it follows the mishap to tho Armagh, which was piled up on a sandbank at Liverpool while in charge of a pilot. Captain Vint then was master of the Armagh, though tho responsibility for that disaster was not his; he then took command of the Konini, but onco again misfortune has overtaken him. The remaining members of the ship's company, twenty-threo all told, are: E. M. Anderson, chief officer; H. A. Boyd, second officer; L. T. Wells, third officer; E. H. Proctor, chief engineer; H. Miller, second engineer; John Lewis, third engineer; J. Ingles, boatßwain; Allan Robertson, donkey man; C. Carnie, J. Moncrieff, J. A. Finch, L. W. Poole, A. Gourley, and J. Irvine, able' soamen; M. Carlin, Joe Dickson, J. Carlin, B. Fernie, J. Beattie, and E. Graham, firemen; J. Lockhoad, chief steward; James Hunter, second steward. The officers and crew were conveyed to port, and are at present awaiting instructions. A preliminary enquiry was held today before Mr H. W. Euffell, Customs officer at Invercargill. Struck Bow On. Apparently there is little explanation to be given apart from the fact that the vessel got off her course in the blackness of the night, the rain contributing to the low visibility. Dog Island light was picked up soon after the vessel passed Centre Island. The distance between the two points is approximately 25 miles. TJie Konini was standing well out, a course being set to carry her, it was thought, round behind Dog Island, which is the usual course followed by steamers making round the cp&st for Dunedin. Shortly after passing Centre- Island, howovor, Captain Vint, who had been on the bridge since G p.m., lost Dog Island light in a rainstorm, which so intensified the murk that nothing at all could be seen ahead. This was not considered alarming in the circumstances, as the course set should have enabled them easily to clear the dangerous rocks behind" tho hill. ' Dog Island light was not picked up again, and tho first realisation of peril came when a hill suddenly loomed out of the darkness right ahead. It was then impossible to avoid disaster. The vessel struck head on, and immediately swung round, losing her rudder in doing so. When she settled lier bow pointed out to sea, as though she had endeavoured to make seaward and had stuck by the stern. She lifted and crunched on to the rocks many times, until her plates were badly gashed, and, making water rapidly, she began to settle. At midday she lay upright and fairly high out of the water, being clearly in view from the sandhills at Ocean Beach. To-morrow morning, it is anticipated, a party will leave Bluff by boat to make an investigation, provided the sea remains calm enough to enable an approach to be made. The steamer is not fully loaded, and is liable to get a battering at any time from the heavy sou'-westerly seas that roll through the Strait. Early On the Scene. At 2.30 this morning Mr E. George, a member of the staff of the Union Company, who resides at Bluff, was awakened by two reports, and shortly after a telephone ring was received from Mr Adams, Harbour Board secretary, who had also heard a whistle. Mr" George and his sister set out in the direction from which the sounds came, and, after a two and a half miles' walk through tussock and bogs, arrived at Ocean Beach, half a mile from the point on whieh the lights of s steamer could be seen. Daylight was breaking when Mr George arrived, and mounting a pinnac-e rock, he hailed the vessel, which was fast amidships 100 yards from shore. He received the answer "Sead for your tug boat. This is the steamer Konini." Mr George replied that the tug was on the way. The vessel was perched on a roek amidships, and each wave swung the steamer on to the rocks. She was rolling so badly that those on shore could near the bell tolling jnd the fittings sliding over the deck.

SEAMEN'S STORIES. VIVID ACCOUNTS OF WRECK NOISE LIKE A BIG GUN". 3.--CUL 10 "TKS TRESS.' ) INYERCARGILL. December 22. *' j are o v er two .Months out lrom Grangemouth." ?.iid one of the crew. "Our lirst port of call was Adelaide. There we had trouble with the reversing pear of the engines. "A few hours before wc struck the weather getting as thick as pea soup, and it. was pitch dark, with rain falling steadilv. We picked up the Centre Island "light at eleven o'clock, but it was more like a lamp than a lighthouse. . We then tried to pick up the Dog Island light, bu., could not find it. The light at mainmast head could hardly be seen lor the birds that clustered round it. "We were pushing on pretty fast, as wc wanted to get to Dunedin as soon as we could. The first thing 1 knew was the order, "Slow!" repeated three times in quick succession, but the ship kept on, and hit with a tremendous crash. The noise was like a big guu going off. and was followed by a series of shivering thuds as tho vessel rebounded to the shock and to the swell. I thought it was a collision at first. Into the Boats. "Everyone was on deck like a streak. " You could hear the roar of the breakers and the 'crunch, crunch' of the ship pounding her bottom out on the reef. Wc got both lifeboats out, and popped into them quick and lively, also sending up rocket signals. In the meantime we stood by for a long time, cruising round the ship until at- the turn of the tide things began to get a bit risky, and the skipper ordercd us to stand off. Then the tug came along, and —well, you know the rest. , "We arc all sorry for the 'Old Man. If was bad luck for him to lose his ship ou her maiden voyage. We were all lucky enough in a way. If there had been a sea running there would have been mighty few of us left to tell the tale. There was never a hopo of getting her off. She would have simply sunk and broken her back." Helmsman's Story. "I was taking my trick at the wheel when we struck the rocks," said John William IrVin, a middle-aged Seamen from the Konini, and one of the members of the crew who were on duty when the vessel grounded. "The night waß pitch dark, and tho heavy rain made matters worse. Fortunately for ua thero was no sea running, otherwise it would have gone hard with us." The helmsman, continuing his story, said he was steering on a given course, and all "appeared 'to be well when be suddenlv caught sight phosphorescent, streaky flashes of white _in the blackness ahead. He realised instantly that danger was imminent, and immediately called out, "Hard a-star-board! Hard down!" Tho jressel had been travelling dead slow for some time, owing to the poor visibility, and when tho order was given her bow swung slowly out, but it was too late. With a sickening bump she touched by the *bow, swung 'round, went aground amidships, and stopped dead. A Desolate Spot. The spot is perhaps the most desolate and dangerous portion of the coast, fringing the hill, and fronts a small bay strewn with boulders and flanked with forbidding, massive headlands, over which the spray breaks continuously. Its appearance, even under the calmest of conditions, leaves no doubt of the terrible fate which would have awaited tlm crew had a big sea been running when the ship struck. After 6£ hours' pounding on the rocks she lay, with a heavy list to seaward, solidly on the reef. Steam was still escaping from the funnel, but she was deserted, and every few minutes her weather rail was obscured by clouds of spray from the waves that slowly but surely are making her ultimate destruction more certain. Salvage Chances. The general opinion amongst nautical men at the port is that the ship is a total loss, and that there is little hope of salvage in a cargo like salt. The engine-room fittings, etc., may to salvaged, and in this connexion the opinion has been very strongly expressed that a golden opportunity was lost of effecting sorno sort of salvage, even if it were only on a small scale, during yesterday afternoon, which was particularly calm in the Strait, the tug having a splendid trip across from the Island. It waa contended that conditions were ideal for salvage operations, and that it was a waste of valuable timo to wait till this morning, when tho sea might be up, and the vessel impossible to work.

The Konini is one of a fleet of four steamers recently purchased |by the Union Steam Ship Company for coastal trade round New Zealand. She is a vessel of 1450 tons, with engines capable of producing 750 h.p. The wrecked vessel was making her maiden rvoyage to New Zealand, and bad taken in cargo at Edithburg, Adelaide, and Wallaroo, the cargo including salt and timber. She was en route to Dunedin, Lyttelton, Wellington, and Auckland for discharge before she took up her proper running. The Konini's sisterships axe Kaimai (which ig on her way out from ]£ngland, via Hobart), Kairangi, and Koranui. None of them is of more than 2000 Sans displacement.