SHIPS AND THE SEA A NARROW ESCAPE

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 98, 27 April 1935, Page 27

SHIPS AND THE SEA

A NARROW ESCAPE

LOST IN THE ATLANTIC

The recent anniversary of the loss of i the Titanic on her maiden voyage in : 1912 calls to mind a whole host of instances where the might of Nature chose to set at nought the handiwork of man. Despite the fact that she had been hailed by the world's Press as the unsinkable ship, the Titanic went under exactly two and a half hours after glancing' along the side of the great Labrador iceberg which dealt her her death blow. At least in this case, however, wireless. and discipline saved enough of her passengers and crew to apprise the world of the fate of the rest, and to ensure that the marine engineers would learn, and grapple with the faults in her construction. ■ Such was not the case with the President, the fourth steam liner to cross the Atlantic. In the midst of a storm of controversy regarding the danger of fire and the unreliable engines of these "floating tea-kettles," the lordly President left on her maiden voyage, and was never heard of again. Though all manner of queer tales were spread regarding her. fate, it is most likely that she fell a victim to the same danger that.accounted for her great descendant some 74 years later. Not long after, the Collies One, a crack steamer organisation, was practically wound up by the disappearance without trace of one of its finest boats, a paddle-wheeler named the Pacific. Following on the loss of the Arctic in collision, this secand blow proved too much for a company which for a time had threatened the Cunard Line. THE ARIZONA COMES THROUGH. For thirty years mystery shrouded the, fate of many well-found ships. Some turned up after being weeks1 overdue^ under sail; others were lucky enough to obtain a tow; but there were many which, through engine trouble, high seas, or icebergs, disappeared for ever from the ocean highways. About fifty years ago, the Arizona, the fastest ship on the Atlantic, became overdue. In view of her great speed, her staunch build, and her complete equipment, b,er non-arrival caused something of a pause in shipping circles. A' great sigh of relief went up when she crept into St. John with her bow crumpled up like tinfoil. She had driven at full speed into an iceberg, and had lived to make port again. It was her fortune to hit the iceberg squarely, and not a. glancing blow, as did'the Titanic. With' a new stem, she remained a prime favourite on the Atlantic for many years, her /successful encounter with the dreaded iceberg being considered proof of her immunity from wreck. PLIGHT OF THE PAVONIA. The Cunarder Pavonia, not long after, was lost for days, and no one could believe that she remained afloat. It afterwards transpired that she had dropped her propeller, and, as her canvas was insufficient to keep way on her, had drifted out of the steamer tracks. For days she lay rolling helplessly in the trough of the sea, receiving a terrible battering from the Atlantic rollers in the rough weather of that season. Her boilers and heavy machinery threatened time and again to tear loose and crash' outwards through the fragileskin of the ship. A tramp steamer came to the rescue, and a hawser was got on board, but hardly had the long .tow commenced than another gale came up. The huge hulkrof the.derelict liner soon1 snapped the,vcable, and the. ships lois sight, of one another. Though hardly crediting that any ship could ride out such a storm without engine power, the gallant tramp skipper stuck to Bis self-ap-pointed task. When the sto'iih,abated, he combed the seas again, ftnd found the liner, sorely battered, v!-but still afloat. She was again' taken in tow, and reached port safely. Her. plight drew attention to the fact that the liner of the day, though carrying i sail, was singularly , helpless when called upon to depend on this means of propulsion: It had been argued before ,that the. chief purpose of the sail was to reassure timid passengers, but it was realised that the time had come for the abolition of sail and the fitting of twin screws. Thus the Inman liners City of Paris and City of New York, the first transatlantic liners to exceed 10,000 - tons," were also the first really big ships to .carry twin screws^ It was.then raised abroad that a disaster such as had befallen the Pavonia could never recur. THE OLD CITY OF PARIS. Within a few years of her entry into the service, however, the City of Paris was in a very similar plight. Her case resembled still more closely that which resulted in the sinking of the Tahiti a few years ago. When she was approaching the Irish coast, a screw dropped off; and the broken shaft, flying free, drove through the engineroom bulkhead, flooding both rooms. With her uninjured shaft and engine out of action, the finest liner of her time lay helpless for four days. In the favourable weather prevailing, one of her boats carried the news to Queenstown. She was towed into that port without further damage. It is interesting to note that this fine old ship had three names in her career, and had an adventure under veach name; After having been sold to American owners and renamed the Paris, she went ashore on the deadly Manacles. Fine salvage work got her off and into Belfast, where extensive damage was repaired. She took the sea again as the Philadelphia,, with a funnel less. After thirty years of life, she was burned out and run ashore in the Mediterranean. Throughout her whole career she never lost a life. This short and rather disconnected account of man's maritime battle with Nature may teach us to show a little more respect for the sea as an adversary. The tales of courage that lie hidden here certainly do'teach,us to respect the men who had the building of our mercantile marine.

WRECK OF THE. LY-EE-MOON

. "Owing to my having had two grandfathers who were deep-sea captains, your remarks in reference to ships past and present are of great interest to me," writes a reader. "One grandfather, Captain D. MacCallum, of Williamstown, Victoria, brought the s.s. Stormbird out from Home on her maiden trip, and commanded her for a number of years. My mother was born at sea on the above boat during one of the trips. "You may have heard or read of the wreck of the s.s. Ly-ee-mopn, outside of the Port Phillip Heads many years ago. My mother, who then had four young children,. myself included. I had booked her passage in her, and actually went down on board, prepared to sail, but one of my sisters w3s unwell, and the captain, who was afraid that the illness was something infectious, ordered mother ashore. Although mother pleaded with the captain, who was a very old friend of her father's, he was firm, and she had to miss the trip and wait for another boat. The Ly-ee-moon sailed, and going I through the Heads ran into a storm [ and turned turtle. The cnty person

MISSING LINEES OF ' YESTERDAY

saved was the late ship's butcher, who floated ashore on a barrel. "Many years ago, when I was living in Russell with my parents, I rei member a Mr. Williams, who had just come down from the signal station, on a hill above Russell, remarking to my father (who was coming home from the evening church service), 'The Wairarapa has just passed, inward bound from Sydney.' Strange to say, but the concluding hymn at church that evening was 'Eternal Father, Strong to Save.' The Wairarapa was wrecked a few hours later." The Ly-ee-moon, launched at Blackwall in 1857, would be remarkable for her speed alone. On her trial run she exceeded 17 knots without being pressed, and when she showed up at Sydney in 1878 she immediately became very popular. She had been bought by the Australian Steam Navigation Company after her conversion to a screw steamer. Shortly after she

vice in the dissemination of market news, the Ly-ee-moon was rammed and sunk in Hong Kong Harbour. She was afterwards raised and taken to England, where, remodelled and refitted, she was bought for the interstate Australian passenger trade.— ''Argus." .