STEAMER KAIMAI DAMAGED

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 257, 28 July 1939, Page 11

STEAMER KAIMAI DAMAGED

Portion Of Bridge Swept Away

RETURN TO PORT AFTER BATTLE WITH GALE

With all the woodwork on the starboard side of her 'bridge carried away, both lifeboats damaged, several ports broken and water in her engine and boiler-rooms, the collier Kaimai arrived back at Wellington yesterday afternoon and berthed at the Clyde Quay Wharf for repairs. . . . Of 1435 tons gross, the Kaimai is & well-known unit of the Union Company s fleet, and at present is running under charter to the Westport Coal Company. Ou Wednesday morning, when botind from Westport to Auckland with a full cargo of coal, the Kaimai put into Worser Bay for shelter. She left there again at 9 o’clock that night in continuation of her voyage to Auckland. Outside the Wellington Heads the Kaimai ran into a heavy south-westerly gale, with high seas, and was able to make only slow progress. Yesterday morning her master, Captain Rowlands, decided to put back to Wellington. The Kaimai was then near Cape Palliser, and it was while the vessel was turning about 8 o’clock in the morning to steam back to Wellington that she was caught broadside on by seveial heavy seas and sustained the damage mentioned. In addition, the ofiicers’ dining saloon and the majority of the cabins were flooded out by water coming through the damaged bridge decking. The Kaimai was not the only ship to feel the force of the gale, the New Zealand Shipping Company's motor-liner Rangitata, which arrived yesterday afternoon from London, being considerably delayed. The trawler South Sea also arrived yesterday afternoon after a stormy passage of three days from the Chatham Islands. The Nobel Explosive Company s auxiliary schooner Piri, of 259 tons, left Auckland last Saturday for Wellington, and was expected here last Tuesday. On Wednesday night her master radioed that he was experiencing a full south-south-westerly gale with heavy confused seas and strong snow and rain squalls. He was then hove-to near Cape Palliser. The Maori was nearly two hours late arriving at Wellington from Lyttelton yesterday morning, though she was two hours late in leaving Lyttelton. The overseas liners Sussex and Port Halifax, which left Wellington last Tuesday for Lyttelton, arrived there only yesterday afternoon, while the Waimarino, which also left on Tuesday for Lyttelton, was still sheltering off Kaikoura yesterday morning.