RESCUE SHIP PUTS OUT

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23051, 20 June 1940, Page 6

RESCUE SHIP PUTS OUT

PASSENGERS TAKEN FROM LIFEBOATS ALL TRANSFERRED TO WAITING LINER BBSS ASSOCIATION leLIQBAM.) WHANGAREI, June 19. When news of the sinking of the Niagara was received a rescue boat immediately went to sea, with PO« ce » harbour board, and other officials. They had an interesting story to tell when they returned to-night. The first visible intimation of an untoward event was a large intercolonial liner moving slowly in the lee of a small island near'the mainland. An aeroplane was seen apparently looking for survivors. Another ship was to be seen hull down on the horizon, and there were other aeroplanes in the distance. In accordance with orders, the rescue boat sailed into the eye of the rising sun, and the captain, with binoculars, sighted tiny specks spread over a wide area, and about 10 miles from the island. These proved to be 17 lifeboats of the Niagara. Each had its lugsail set. The first to come alongside was a motor-boat with women and young children aboard. The vessel also towed six of the Nia gara’s boats, loaded with passengers and members of the crew. The majority of the rescued were wearing lifebelts. while many were in light r .P^ ar ?fo t nightdresses One Chinese motner, with a large hood, was clad in silk night clothes and carried an umbrella. nl As the rescue boat sailed round the flotilla of lifeboats and the rest of the shipwrecked were picked up, P aboard the 120-ton rescue boat became very congested, 300 being on board, most of the men if was a case of standing room only. Women ana infants were accommodated m the captain s saloon and officers’ quarters. One bun dred'and twenty cups of tea were dis tributed from the small galley. As the survivors stepped aboard the rescue boat, each lifeboat was cast adrift to be towed in by launches Surprising indeed in view of tne general confusion attendant upon such an experience was th ® number of misadventures. In the cap tain’s cabin a doctor treated a woman with an egg-sized head contusion, caused by a bump against her bunk when the explosion occurred. A man with a cut head, and two persons with sprained ankles, and several cases ot minor shock among the woman passengers, were also attended to; dux generally the women were wonderfully cheerful and in as high spirits as the. m Though the rescue boat did not_ go to the scene of the actual sinking, members of the Niagara’s crew said that there were acres of flotsam —deck chairs, loose fittings, and remnants of the cargo blown out of No. 2 hold. All safely aboard, the rescue boat turned back to make a second rendezvous with the liner and her escort. With women and children leading the way up the gangway, the rescued were transferred to the liner, which had been waiting since dawn. A detective went aboard the liner and travelled to Auckland from the rescue boat. At 2.10 p.m. the rescue boat cast off and headed for port.

SWIFT RESCUE WORK

AEROPLANES SEARCH FOR LIFEBOATS (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, June 19. Swiftly organised and promptly carried out, the work of the rescue ships resulted not only in all the crew and passengers being picked up without mishap, but also in their arrival at Auckland by an overseas liner about 7 o’clock to-night. The flotilla of large and small vessels employed at the task in practically every case left their bases before daylight, and did not return until long after nightfall. When the Niagara’s distress • call was received, radio advice was flashed to an overseas liner off the New Zealand coast to alter course, and to pror ceed at full speed to render aid to the stricken liner. Other small vessels and a fast motor-boat attached to the Royal New Zealand Air Force base also raced north. Already the overseas liner was standing by, with the Niagara’s boats some five miles away. . . . . . A coastal ship was instructed to carry out the main work of rescue, and aeroplanes overhead searched a, wide area to ensure that none of the boats had drifted out of sight. Launches and boats from the waiting liner, rounded up the boats and the occupants, many of whom were suffer-. ing from cold and exposure, were transferred to the coastal boat. Hot drinks and food were provided for them. When all the boats had been mustered, the coastal boat proceeded alongside the overseas liner, to which the entire crew and all the passengers of the Niagara were transferred. This work was completed shortly after 2 o’clock, and the ship sailed for Auckland to disembark the survivors. Throughout the rescue operations, the large ships associated with the work stood well clear of the area where the Niagara was reported to have been mined. Later some minesweepers appeared. ‘ The Niagara vanished practically without trace. Immediately after her foundering oil was spread over a wide patch of sea, and deck fittings and chairs were floating on the water. “Although we were sailing half-way round the world to take part in the fight for freedom, we did not expect to enter the war zone so early in the voyage,” said Mr J. A. Beurang, of three Belgian nation-.s on the Nia-' gara who were hastening to France to obey the call to arms made by their Government.

Hurled from his bunk on the lowest deck, close to the hold where the full effects of the explosion were felt, Denis Morgan, a pianist, who had been engaged in the Niagara’s orchestra for two years, told how he saw, the sea pouring into the baggage room, and reached the forward stairway as water was rising in the passageway he had just left. The doors were blown off several nearby cabins, he said, and the baggage room was a heap of shattered wreckage. As he passed a bathroom he observed that two heavy porcelain baths had been reduced to powder. “Helping to close some of the watertight doors was a task I had previously been allotted,” continued Mr Morgan. “This took several minutes. The lights were out in several sections of the ship, and the alarm system was out of action, because the wheelhouse and control room were wrecked.”