UNLUCKY SHIP

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 156, 30 December 1940, Page 4

UNLUCKY SHIP

EARLIER ACCIDENTS

In her nine years in the inter-island service, the Rangatira has frequently been in the news, and compared with her sisters and predecessors on that run she has been an unlucky ship.

In 1931, when she was about to leave Home for New Zealand, fire broke out in her second-class accommodation, delaying her for several weeks. Some time after taking up regular running she collided with the floating crane Rapaki in Lyttelton, Harbour.

On February 2, 1936. the Rangatira grounded off Sinclair Head in a heavy southerly gale, with 680 passengers on board. A quarter of an hour later she was backed off and made the harbour entrance stern-first, but under her own power. Her forward hold and compartments were flooded, and she was badly down by the bow. Three tugs assisted her in a three-hour trip through the gale to the Clyde Quay Wharf. It was found that 150 feet of her bottom was crumpled and torn. Repairs took over three months, and on their completion the Rangatira was just in time to relieve the Wahine, which was damaged through colliding with the Pipitea Wharf in a thick fog. MISHAP WITH ACHILLES. An extraordinary mishap in which the Rangatira figured occurred on April 14, 1938. She was leaving for Lyttelton with about 1000 passengers when she was caught in a north-west gale and got out of control. An anchor was dropped, but fouled the. anchor cable of H.M.S. Achilles, which was lying at Clyde Quay Wharf. The cruiser's moorings parted and she was dragged from the wharf. The Rangatira's stern swung round and collided with the warship's bows. The after bridge of the liner was badly damaged and the Achilles suffered some damage to one of her outboard propellers. The Rangatira finally cleared herself by slipping the port cable and passed out through the Heads at 9 p.m.