Mystery Flooding Of Stokehold Of Holmlea At Sea

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22916, 7 April 1949, Page 6

Mystery Flooding Of Stokehold Of Holmlea At Sea

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, April 7. Witnesses at the court of inquiry yesterday said they knew no reason why the stokehold of the Ilolmlea should have flooded while the collier was north of Westport on the night of February 19 last. The court is concerned with finding the cause of the flooding.

The court consists of Mr. A. A. McLachlan, S.M., two engineer assessors, Mr. E. A. Griffiths and Mr. A. McDougall and a nautical assessor, Captain A. H. Howie.

Examined after the mishap at Westport and Wellington the vessel was found to be sound.

The principal witness was the master of the vessel, Captain James Gustav McCormick, who described rough seas encountered after the vessel left Greymouth on Saturday, February 19 for Castlecliff. The fact that water had risen over the stokehold plates was first reported to him at 9.45 that night, he said. Hand baling with 10-gallon drums and the use of a hand winch was begun at 11.15. Vessel Turned Back However, the water continued to make and he radioed to Wellington and at 1 a.m, asked for a tug. Ten minutes later he turned back for Westport. The water had risen to the top of the wing fire ashpits by between 3 and 4 a.m. At 4.15 all the fires went out and the ship was left without steam. The Holmlea was picked up by a tug at about 5.30 on the Sunday morning. Until he turned about, Captain McCormick said, he expected the engineers to get the pumps going. Cross-examined by Mr. H. R. Biss, for the Marine Department, the witness said the weather was bad enough to cause the ship to spring a rivet. If that had happened the leak should have been apparent on t.he subsequent trip to Wellington, or even when the ship was at Westport. In neither case was there any sign of a leak. He knew, since the ship had been pumped out at Westport, that the leak could not have been due to a sprung rivet, or to any other cause brought about by rough weather.

The chief officer, Claude Leo James and the second mate, Edmond Robert Glanville Burrin, said they could offer no explanation for the amount of water that came into the ship. The hearing was adjourned until today.