Damaged Freighter Refloated By Tide

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28606, 7 June 1958, Page 12

Damaged Freighter Refloated By Tide

(New Zealand Press Association) NELSON, June 6. The Union Steam Ship Company’s 3372ton trans-Tasman freighter Waiana, which ran on to a reef on the northern side of the French Pass about 11 o’clock last night, was* refloated by the rising tide. The Waiana, bound from Wellington to Nelson with a cargo of gypsum, crumpled the port side of her bow and broke the beacon on the reef when she struck. Tonight, the Waiana was at anchor in Catherine’s Cove, D’Urville Island, about five miles north-east of the French Pass. The Wellington tug Taioma was lying alongside the damaged ship.

Mr C. H. Mallowes, the French Pass lighthouse keeper,* said today that last night when he heard a short blast from a siren he looked out of the window and saw the Waiana on the reef on the northern side of the passage. Mr Mallowes said the flooding tide caught the Waiana’s stern and swung it round towards the mainland, so that the 336 ft-long vessel almost completely blocked the navigable passage. By this time, the tide was sweeping through the narrow pass at about nine knots.

Mr P. Aston, a fisherman at the French Pass took his launch to the crippled ship to see if he could give any help, and then crossed to the lighthouse to pick up Mr Mallowes. By this time the tide had started to ebb and it was only with difficulty that the launch could be kept near the ship. Later the keeper and Mr Aston assisted in placing a collision mat over the crumpled part of the bow on the port side. Hull Damaged The rivets had been pulled out of some plates in the hull, and the crew had carried out caulking work from inside the vessel in order to check the intake of water. This morning, as Mr Aston’s launch was taking a line to the Anchor Shipping Company’? Mamaku, the rising tide lifted the Waiana fromjthe reef She caught on the rocks again for a few minutes before her own motors, going astern, pulled her free. Accompanied by the Mamaku. the Waiana then proceeded under her own power to Catherine’s Cove. The Waiana reached the cove at 12.55 p.m. and anchored about a quarter of a mile offshore, opposite the small Maori settlement at Kiangawari.

The Taioma arrived in Catherine’s Cove at 3 p.m.* and at 3.30 p.m. the Mamaku, which had stood by the Waiana since 2 a.m., continued her voyage from Nelson to Wellington. There was a strong northwesterly wind in the Sound today but, by this evening, it was calm with a clear sky.

The Union Steam Ship Company’s marine surveyor (Mr Taylor) flew from Wellington to Nelson today. He motored to the French Pass, taking with him a supply of special underwater cement used for making temporary repairs. Built in 1937 The Waiana, a , single-screw motor-ship was ' built in 1937 at Glasgow by Alexander Stephen and Sons, Ltd. She is one of a numerous class of cargo vessels built by that firm for the Union company’s transtasman trade. Captain H. J. Petty is in command of the Waiana, with Mr M. J*. Lock as chief officer, Mr L. H. Howells second officer, and Mr W. Pilling third officer. Mr Sinclair is chief engineer officer and Mr W. D. N. Sotheran is radio officer. The French Pass is the passagq, between D’Urville Island and the South Island, near the entrance to Pelorus Sound. It was first negotiated by the French explorer Dumont D’Urville, in his corvette Astrolabe in 1827. At its narrowest part, the navigable portion is greatly reduced by a reef extending from the D’Urville Island side. The pass is noted for its strong tidal streams, the direction of which changes two hours before high and low water.