COLLISION AT SEA

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 44, 21 February 1942, Page 9

COLLISION AT SEA

ONE SHIP MAKES PORT

OTHER ASHORE ON ROGKS

(0.C.)

SYDNEY, February 18.

With a crash that sent showers of sparks hurtling through the darkness, two blacked-out steamers collided off the coast of New South Wales early on Saturday.

One of one ships, the Gwydir (1929 tons), was beached precariously near Norah Head, 45 miles north of Sydney by sea, with a hole in her port side. The other vessel slid away with battered bows and later made port down by the head. The anchor of this ship was embedded in the upper plating of the Gwydir.

The Gwydir, owned, by the Newcastle and Hunter River Steamship Co., Ltd., carried a crew of 20 and 12 male passengers. AH were rescued. The passengers were asleep in their cabins when they were awakened by the crash at 3 a.m. Reassured by the officers, they dressed rapidly and collected their baggage. Some of the crew noticed one of the stewards go flying over the side at the moment of impact. For two hours he swam in shark-in-fested waters, while a lifeboat searched for him. Just before dawn his cries were heard, and he was rescued by his shipmates.

A hasty examination by officers after the collision showed that the Gwydir was taking in water, and it was decided to beach her. A few hundred yards from the sandy beach the rudder was shorn off on a reef of rocks, and the Gwydir drifted helplessly stern first on to the rocks. With the passengers safe on one of the rescue vessels, the crew remained on board most of the day.