THE CRIPPLED MAMARI

Evening Star, Issue 19632, 11 August 1927, Page 11

THE CRIPPLED MAMARI

HATAKAHA AS ESCOST [Pun United Press Association.] t * AUCKLAND, August 10. Telegraphic advice received by tbo local office of tho Shaw, Savill and Albion Company states, that the Mamari, vvJiich is making for Bahia Blanca With her bows slovo in, is escorted by _ tho steamer Matakana, another unit of tho company’s fleet. A cable message from London earlier in tho week stated that the Mamari, bound from Wellington to London, was in distress off the coast of Argentina, having struck an iceberg on Friday last in latitude 49 degrees south, and, longitude 53 degrees west. Tho message added that the vessel was steaming'at six knots an hour towards Bahia Blanca.

The Mamari left Wellington on July 19 for London via Teneriffe, and the Matakana sailed from Port Chalmers,’ also for London via Montevideo and Teneriffe, on the day following. [The Mamari is a steel twin-screw steamer of 8,114 tons, owned by the Shaw, Savill and Albion Line. The vessel was built bv Ilarland and Wolff, Ltd., at Belfast, in IDOL The locality the Mamari had reached when sho collided with the iceberg is about 250 miles north-east of tho Falkland Island, and about 540 miles from the South American coast. Bahia Blanca, for which the Mamari is now making, is about 720 miles north-west of where tho accident occurred, and 400 miles south of Montevideo, The Mamari had a sensational accident at Auckland on November 27, 190 C, when sho moved forward on tho blocks in tho Calliope Dock, with tho result that fifty men were swwpt into the water, two being killed and thirty others injured. The vessel had been docked early in tho morning, and about fifty men were engaged scrubbing and cleaning the hull as tho water was being pumped out of tho dock. At the time of the accident some of the men were on punts and others were standing on tho steps of tho deck. The Mamari, which had been shored up, suddenly moved forward, causing a great surge of water, and practically all the men employed were lifted up by tho waves and swirled round in the water, many_ of them being injured by pieces of timber. Efforts were at ouco made to rescue tho men and to attend to the injured, the most seriously hurt being removed to the hospital. While tins was proceeding the vessel still lay in a dangerous position, and as there were fears that sho would move further the dock was again filled and the vessel floated off the chocks. Tho work of rescuing the men out ot the water was carried out with great difficulty and danger, because of the fear that tho Mamari would capsize as much as possible iu the small space and .crush those in the water and their rescuers. The scene at the. dock after the accidnet resembled a battlefield. Bruised and bleeding men were lying about by twos and threes along the dock side. Others who were more seriously injured were carried into the dock sheds. The bodies of tho two men who were killed wove not recovered until the Mamari had been undocked and the dock bad been pumped dry.]