SINKING OF THE AWATEA

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23918, 9 April 1943, Page 4

SINKING OF THE AWATEA

*- Description By One Of Grew ATTACK BY STRONG FORCE OF AIRCRAFT (P.S.S.) AUCKLAND, April 8. A description of the sinking of the Awatea after she had landed her troops off the Algerian coast was given by a member of the crew. The ship had started off at full speed from Bougie, for Gibraltar when she was attacked by at least 15 enemy aircraft. All guns and anti-aircraft weapons on board were used as they had never been used before, but at 4.53 p.m. on November 11 bombs were received m Nos. 1, 2, and 4 holds. So great was the explosion that one of the No. 2 lids, weighing about one ton, landed on the starboard wing of the bridge, and another hurtled down on the aft end of the promenade deck, almost the full ship’s length away. ‘ Almost immediately,” he said, Nos. 1 and 2 holds caught fire. At 5.25 an aerial torpedo struck the port side. A water-tight bulkhead in the engineroom collapsed, 1 two compartments were flooded, and the ship listed heavily to port. The master, Captain G. B. Morgan, hoped to beach his ship, but there was insufficient way on her. . . “With the flooding of the engineroom the lighting and. pumping systems were rendered useless, making it impossible for us to fight the fires, which by this time had a big hold. As the ship was listing rapidly by this time there was only one thing to do. Reluctantly we abandoned ship. Officers Last to Leave “Four boats were lowered and got clear. The remainder of the crew went bn board a British destroyer, which came alongside our starboard quarter. One party, which included the captain and officers, came away last in the fifth boat, which had previously been jammed. "The destroyer then shifted further forward abeam of No. 2. hold and attempted to get the fire under control, but this proved useless as the ship’s sides were white hot and the heat too intense to bring the ship close enough. The destroyer then drew away and the Awatea was abandoned for good.. “Two more lifeboats and their occupants were picked up, and after a last look at the ship burning we were invited below decks to the sailors’ mess, where tea was being served by the crew. We were all to be put aboard a naval auxiliary, but on going alongside her we were given orders to board a Dutch shitf as the auxiliary had all the survivors of another ship which had been bombed and was burning fiercely a short distance away.” The fastest ship engaged on the Tasman Sea passenger service, the Awatea was built for the Union Steam Ship Company at Barrow-in-Furness by Vickers Armstrong, Ltd., and was launched in 1936. In her comparatively brief pre-war career, the Awatea, under the command of Captain A. H* Davey, established several records for speedy trips between Auckland and Sydney. Among the vessel’s several fast runs was one in which she covered 555 nautical miles —over 600 land miles—in 24 hours, a run believed never to have been exceeded by a merchant ship south of the Line. On that oqcasion the trip from Auckland to Sydney was completed in two days nine hours and a half. The Awatea also held the record for the run from Wellington to Sydney, averaging more than 22 knots, but her highest speed was never made known and was still a secret when she left New Zealand waters on war service.

Of about 14,000 tons gross register, the Awatea was 545 feet overall, with a beam' of 74 feet. She arrived at Auckland on September 17, 1936. War service claimed the Awatea not long after the outbreak of hostilities and her three years of service took her into almost every ocean and into dozens of ports. For some time she was engaged in the Tasman and the Pacific carrying New Zealand and Australian airmen to Canada. Later she took Canadian troopS to Hong Kong and she helped with the evacuation of civilians..

The Awatea visited India and then went to Britain. She voyaged across the Atlantic, was involved in three collisions, was in several convoys, and ended her career by taking part in the North African landings.