FORMER STRANDING RECALLED

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 81, 30 December 1940, Page 9

FORMER STRANDING RECALLED

Rangatira On Rocks At Sinclair Head Five years ago a similar, but more serious, mishap befell the Raugatira, when she ran ashore on the rocks under Sinclair Head, Wellington, in

a blinding southerly gale and was extensively damaged. She was carried several miles off her course by an unprecedented set of the tide through Cook Strait, and only the seamanship of her master and the strength of her construction saved the vessel aud the lives of the 700 persons on board.

It was the morning of February 2, 1936—a150 a Sunday. A southerly was blowing up to a gale which wrecked havoc in Wellington and country districts, tore away a wall in the Te Aro baths, swept yachts at Evans Bay from their moorings and sent the steamer John, moored off Kaiwarra, ashore beside the Hutt Road.

The Raugatira, carrying some COO passengers in addition to her officers and crew, struck at 10 minutes to 6 o’clock in the morning, in bad visibility. Passengers assembled on deck in lifebelts, but the boats were not manned, and a quarter of an hour later the ship was backed off and was brought in the Heads stern first, under her own power. Her forward hold and compartments were Hooded, and she was badly down by the bow. Aided by three tugs, she fought her way up the harbour when the gale was at its height, taking some three hours from the Heads to Clyde Quay Wharf. Subsequently she was found to have crumpled and torn some 150 feet of her bottom, necessitating extensive structural repairs. At the subsequent marine inquiry the master, Captain W. D. Cameron, was exonerated from blame, and had his certificate returned. He was congratulated by the Court on the seamanship which had enabled him to bring the ship safely into harbour in her damaged state, and in the storm which was raging at the time.