AGROUND IN FOG

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 130, 29 November 1939, Page 11

AGROUND IN FOG

THE WAIKOUAITI

TOTAL LOSS LIKELY

MAILS AND CREW SAFE

While steaming through log towards the end of a voyage , from Sydney to New Zealand ports, the Union Steam Ship Company's 3926----ton steamer Waikouaiti went aground on Dog Island, near Bluff, at about 9.30 o'clock last night, v and is still hard and fast. The crew and the mails are safe.

The Waikouaiti," under the command 6f Captain J. Bruce, was bound from Sydney with 5500 tons of general cargo from New South Wales for discharge at Lyttelton, Timaru, and Dunedin.

Fortunately, the sea was calm when she went aground, but a slight swell caused the ship to grind, and during 'the night. she took a considerable quantity of water into No. 1 and No. 2 holds. The prospects of refloating the vessel, in view of the quantity of water shipped,, are considered unpromising.

According to a Press Association message from Invercargill, the vessel struck rocks 150 yards off Dog Island. The forepart is seven feet under water at high tide, while v the stern- is high in the air with the propellers showing. The ship will probably be a total loss, but her cargo of hardwood poles, sleepers, and steel from Port Kerhbia and Newcastle will probably be salvaged by the Gale and Waitaki, which are : scheduled to arrive at Bluff this afternoon. The crew of 25.t00k to the lifeboats with their, personal effects, and were towed to Bluff .by a Harbour Board launch, arriving at 9 this morning. ■ v . ; - . ; .. • ■

Captain King, marine superintendent of the Union Company at Dunedin,' and other officials left Bluff in a launch at 11 o'clock this _ morning to make an inspection. The weather is fine and the sea calm.

Salvage will present no great dim-' culty if the sea.remains calm, but the ship will be in a p'recarious position if it. comes up rough. ■ Dog Island, where the vessel struck, is three miles from Bluff. It is half a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide. On the highest point, which-is 50 feet above sea level, is a lighthouse tower, which is 150 feet high. Only keepers and their families live there

The first officer of the Waikouaiti is Mr, S. C. Angus, the second Mr. C. A. Spencer, and the third Mr. J. W. Wilson.

The Waikouaiti was built in Germany in 1914 and. named Irmgard. She was taken over after the war by the Union Company and became a familiar vessel in the coastal arid intercolonial trade, chiefly between Sydney and Newcastle; and South Island ports.