FLOATING WRECK

Evening Star, Issue 19840, 13 April 1928, Page 8

FLOATING WRECK

C. A. LARSEN REACHES PORT VESSEL A RECORD SALVAGE FEAT TO GO INTO DOCK NEXT WEEN Crippled, the C. A. Larsen, the mother ship of the Norwegian whaling fleet operating in the Ross Sea dependency, limped into Port Chalmers under her own steam early this afternoon. She is a floating wreck and one of the miracle salvages of the sea. On Tuesday or Wednesday next the Larsen will go into tho Otago dock, which has been especially lengthened to take her. Sighting will then be done. Whether the vessel will go to Norway for permanent repairs is indefinite until the complete survey is made, but it is really improbable that the vessel will leave Port Chalmers until she is completely overhauled. Inside the hold along the starboard side she is a mass of tangled steel frames and bulkheads. So she is described.

Tho Larsen is considered to be a miracle of salvage. Wlten she bumped along the Faro Rock Reef great indentations were made in the hull, one alone measuring 12ft by 9ft. Huge holes were ripped in her plates. Further, the bulkheads were set up, allowing the water to run from one tank to another.

THE MISHAP A whistling westerly was blowing across the Larsen’s I am as she sneaked her way up the lee of Stewart Island on her northward trip from the Antarctic that fateful afternoon of February 21. Loaded to near the plimsoll with a rich cargo of whale oil, reeking like an Augean stable, her decks and bulwarks covered with a thick black slime, tho C. A. Larsen nas not the picturesque modern galleon, comparable, to the fleet ship of “ Quinquerimc of Ninevah, from distant Ophir, rowing homo to haven and sunny Palestine; but in her massive tanks was a cargo more valuable than “ivory, and apes and peacocks, sandalwood, cedar wood, and sweet white wine.”

In the Larsen’s eleven tanks, deep down below the water line, were 78,000 barrels of creamy whale oil for use in the perfumery and soap manufactories of the United States. With the record cargo of £380,000 worth of oil, obtained after a phenomenal season in the Ross Sea, that fathomless stretch of open water between the Ice Barrier and the great lonely wastes of Antarctica, they were a happy crew of Norwegians and New Zealanders aboard the pride of the Ross Sea whaling fleet. Throughout the day the sky had been sullen, ami as the Larsen swung round the east coast and headed for the channel between rlnglera Point, where once the main population of Stewart Island was centred, and Bench Island, a lofty hilly block of the Titi Islands, the watchers on deck saw their welcome base far up in a wooded bay of Paterson’s Inlet. The Larsen was only six miles from home. There, fellow-coun-trymen from far-off Norway were waiting the hardy Norsemen on the mother ship, which had been away from the island, the last point of civilisation, for almost thirteen weeks.

Then fate made a heavy thrust. Travelling at betiveen four and five knots, the Larsen’s bluff bow was headed towards ’ tho channel between Anglem Point and Faro rock, a rugged rock standing high above the white-capped sea, when her steering gear failed. Out of control from the bridge, the Larsen, a huge wall of steel, moved along with her own weight. Catching the tide, her bow was swung towards the reef rumng.out of the rock. A rasping noise—the Larsen had struck! As the big ship bumped along the reef plates from the bow to aft of the bridge, a distance of over 200 ft, were ripped open.

Three piping distress signals were screeched on the Larsen’s whistle, and' five perky little chasers, the Star boats, tied alongside the sister factory ship, the Sir James Clark Ross, lying snug at her anchorage off the pretty Price’s Bay,_ the base of the fleet, raced down the inlet to the Larsen's rescue. With ten chasers puffing ostentatiously about her the Larsen was escorted towards the base. She was sinking fast. As thousands of tons of water surged through the rents the Larsen settled down in the bow. It was a great stroke or fortune that, as darkness was settling over the disturbed waters of Paterson’s Inlet, the Larsen was run aground on a sandy beach in the deep channel between that lovely sanctuary, Diva Island, and Native (or Rabbit) Island. The Larsen would assuredly have sunk in fathoms deep if she had been another hour in reaching the haven. ' With her bow down and stern high out of the water, the Larsen was a pathetic sight at daybreak. She looked ft doomed ship. The record of wrecks of big vessels on the New Zealand coast is a black one, and the Larsen was in such a precarious plight that it seemed as if the Norwegian vessel’s disaster would make another chapter in the wreck history of the Antipodes. But great work in salvage is being don© the world over in these modern times, and the Larson must bo written as one of the modern salvages. Working on th© sandy bottom, divers have patched the huge holes ripped in the Larson's starboard. and made her a fit ship to steam to Port Chalmers for temporary repairs. On the night of the wreck messages from the Larsen’s wireless room were flashing across the world to the headquarters of tho firm of J. Rasmussen Company at Sandjeford, and radios were despatched to the Bluff and Otago Harbor Boards calling for salvage tugs, while inquiries were made at various ports for the charter of an oil tanker to take tho whale products, thousands of barrels of which were oozing out into the inlet. The tug Theresa Ward arrived on th© scene early the following morning, and the pumps were soon working in the forepeak. The following day the tug Dunedin arrived at Paterson’s Inlet with a spare pump. That pump has been the salvation of the Larsen, as the ship’s pump room was flooded.

Salvaging of the Larsen has been a long and anxious work. When the temporary plating was completed the ship was pumped out, and was towed to Sou’-west Bay, one of the many glorious landlocked havens in Paterson’s Inlet. Last week the Spinanger, a new oil tanker, arrived at Stewart Island, and the valuable whale oil cargo remaining in the Larsen’s tanks was transhipped. Floating high, kbove the deadly reach of Davy Jones, who had almost captured another prize, the Larsen was ready for her trip to Port Chalmers.

THE PATCHING Being done under water, the patching was the hardest part, but the divers accomplished it with conspicuous success. The patches of wood were shaped so as to fit the indentations and holes, with hook bolts to screw the patches firmly into position. One of the holes was in the vessel’s bottom under the coal bunker, and tons of coal had rushed through the hole like shingle pouring from a dredge’s pipes. In all seven

patches were fitted to the hull, one of them measuring 20ft in length. Although the tug Dunedin’s auxiliary pump, which was left on the Larsen when the Dunedin returned to port, was working at only half capacity for some time the water was kept under. The ship’s pump room was 40ft under water, yet, realising the great service the appliance would render (the pump was capable of throwing 1,000 tons an hour), the chief engineer dived into the room and started the pumps going. There were large holes in the plates of the pumproom, which was on the starboard side, and 130 buckets of cement, weighing 2cwt each, were lowered into the room to stop them. The oil tanker Spinanger arrived at Paterson’s Inlet on Wednesday of last week and took aboard 10,000 tons of whale oil, valued at £250,000, from the damaged tanks of the Larsen, and leit for New York, where the cargo will be discharged, on Monday. This left 2,000 tons of oil still remaining in the Larsen’s tanks.

THE RON TO PORT CHALMERS The Larsen, accompanied by the chaser Karrakatta, the fastest boat of the fleet, left Stewart Island at 2 p.m. yesterday for Port Chalmers. Good weather was experienced on the run and the sea was smooth. The luck was with the Norwegians. The Larsen was steaming slowly off St. Clair about 8 o’clock this morning, and many watched the big ship pass the Ocean Beach. The vessel arrived at the Heads about midday, and, escorted by the tug Dunedin, came slowly up to Port Chalmers, where she was berthed at the George street wharf at 1.40 p.m. . Several days will be required to make the Lafsen ready to go into dock. The vessel is 527 ft long and 66.6 ft in beam. She will have to draw about 18ft before she can get into the dock. The Otago dock has been remodelled at the forehead to take the Larsen. The bow of the dock has been removed for a width of 27ft, and abput 20ft on at the bottom. The work is only of a temporary nature, and the walls are now supported by hardwood timber piles and sheathing. £50,000 FOR REPAIRS When the survey has been made tenders will be called for the work of repairing the ship, and an estimate of the cost of permanent repairs at Port Chalmers has been set down at about £50,000. If the Port shipwright secures the full work, Port Chalmers will be given a new fillip as a ship-repairing port.