SHIP STRIKES REEF

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 42, 18 August 1939, Page 5

SHIP STRIKES REEF

MOTOR-VESSEL CLANSMAN

BEACHED FOR REPAIRS

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, August 17. After running on Colville Reef at the northern extremity of Coromandel Peninsula this morning, the Northern Steamship Company's motor vessel Clansman, of 236 tons gross, bound from Auckland to Whakatane, was forced to put into Cabbage Bay on the western side of the peninsula for beaching and repairs. She will return to Auckland tomorrow afternoon to tranship cargo and for inspection and repairs. With Csptain Cathcart, formerly of the Toa, as master, the Clansman left Auckland, for Whakatane with a full cargo about midnight on Wednesday and some hours later, ■ when about 40 miles out of port, the ship .struck the submerged Colville Reef.

The Clansman was quickly put full astern and was able to move away from the rocks, which apparently struck her sides forward. Damage to the planking resulted in leaking, and, with the engineroom and deck pumps working, the motor vessel ran for Cabbage Bay, a distance of about ten miles.

On reaching the bay the Clansman was beached at high water and pumped dry for examination. It was found that the hull was intact and that no water had apparently entered the cargo spaces.

Captain Pierotti, the company's marine superintendent, and Mr. H. Levey, engineer, left Auckland at 2 p.m. in the Kawau, which proceeded to Cabbage Bay after her scheduled call at Coromandel. Temporary repairs were made at low water, and it was expected that the Clansman would leave on her return to Auckland on tomorrow morning's tide.