THE BEACHED STEAMER NIWARU.

Evening Post, Volume LXVI, Issue 20, 23 July 1903, Page 6

THE BEACHED STEAMER NIWARU.

._ FAVOURABLE REPORTS. The Daily Telegraph of Tuesday 'says that as long as fine weather is experienced while the Niwaru is in her present predicament the prospects of again refloating may be regarded 'at any rate as hopeful, although several persons at the port, who cannot by any means be classed as pessimists, are inclined to be dubious on this point. Should dirty weather and heavy seas set in from the north-east or south-east the seriousness of the position would be greatly increased. Yesterday morning's Herald says the vessel is still aground aft, but she floats forward at high water. There is no doubt that she would have gone bodily down had she remained in the roadstead where her anchors were dropped shortly after the mishap. When the six pumps are going the water will be lifted at the rate of about 6000 gallons a minute. As soon as the pumps gain on the water and the steamer floats fore and aft she will be taken out to -the anchorage. To-day the Underwriters' Association was informed that the vessel would have been taken to the outer anchorage last night but that the windlass broke in hauling on the anchors. ¦ No. 4 hold is the only one that water has got into to any extent, and a great deal of Wellington cargo is undamaged. The statement that the vesesl was to have been taken to the outer anchorage last night seems an extraordinary one. There has been no mention of an attempt to patch the vessel, and, as it has been stated in the Napier press that she had "wallowed" through the soft layer of shingle on which she first grounded and was grinding on a much harder formation, a good deal of patching would probably be -necessary.