PROPELLER MAY HAVE GONE

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31652, 11 April 1968, Page 12

PROPELLER MAY HAVE GONE

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, April 10.

A propeller may have been lost from the Wahine when she originally hit the rocks, one of the ship’s engineering staff said tonight.

Just after 6 a.m. today, the engineer’s “panic bell” called all engineers to the engineroom, he said. “When we got below we found the ship had hit the rocks. There was water coming into the engineroom, and the propeller shaft was bent The propeller may have gone, too,” he said. “Later in the morning the anchors were holding, so we went down to the engine room again and tried to get something going, even though the main engines were out. “There was quite a lot of water in the engine room and the bilge pumps couldn’t j handle it When the garage: began to fill with water and the ship took on a list all the water went to the lowei ! side and the list got worse. 11 was ail over then,” he said. “We went up on deck and’ tried to help the passengers abandon ship,” said the engineer. “In the last few ; minutes people slid down the : decks and some went ovei: the side. Peonle who had jumped: into the sea and those whose:

light rafts had turned over simply drifted towards Eastbourne or the rocks, the engineer said.

The engineer said a man on his life raft lost his wife, but rescued his three children. “When the raft turned over 1 was thrown clear, but the five of them were trapped in an air pocket underneath,” he said.

“The man used a pocket knife to cut through the bottom of the raft and got his three little girls out, but his wife drowned.”