AUCKLAND SPECIAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 247, 26 October 1901, Page 2

AUCKLAND SPECIAL.

TIIE MONO AVAL (Special to Times.) Auckland, last night. News of the safety of the Union Steamship Company's Monowai was received here with general expressions of relief and thankfulness. The first intelligence came iu the form of an announcement made in the House of Representatives that the Monowai had passed Orepuki in tow of two steamers. A special wire from Weilington states that when the PostmasterGeneral read the telegram in the House from the postmaster at the Bluff regarding the safety of the Monowai, members cheered heartily. A special message from Dunedin this evening states that the Mon ovili's passengers are loud in their p -ose respecting Captain Chatfield and his officers. " AVe owe our deliverance to Providence." said one, whose statement was assented to bv the rest,

“ but we do not forget the skill displayed by both captains." Smith, engineer of the Monowai, said :

“ AVe left Dunedin on the 14th, and tho Bluff on the loth. Everything went all right till the following day, when we fell in with a south-west gale, with very heavy sea. Tho engines were eased down at 1.30 a.ni., and it was reported to me that there had been a heavy crash aft, as if the propeller had struck something. A slight jarring was felt after that. At 0.45 a.m. the engine took a heavy race, and on making an examination we found that the ‘boss’ had burst open in a V shape." Asked to say exactly what this meant, Smith replied : “ The boss is that part of tho propeller that the blades are fastened on to. What happened was that the shaft was left exposed through the ‘ boss.' There was absolute disablement of the machinery beyond the possibility of the repair till the ship could be tipped to get the shaft out of the water. That could not be done in these latitudes. There was nothing in tho shape of the breakage of the ship's frame, and it meant no danger to the ship, but it meant she was .absolutely crippled. Nothing could bo done till we got a new ' boss fitted."

Mr Cook, the Company's superintcu- j dent engineer, was asked it such an acci- I dent was common. He replied : " It is ! the first time within mv recollection that such a thing has happened at sea. AVo have found these things defective in dock, but nothing like this has ever happened in the same way. The Monowai was in dock only tivo weeks ago.” Chief Engineer Smith said, so far as ho knew, nobody saw anything of tho object that the propeller struck. Ho could not even guess what it was, though many thought it must have been a piece of partially sunken wreckage. Possibly that was the case."

Captain Chatliold’s story was that the weather got gradually worse at tho time of the mishap, and that though ho set all the ship’s ordinary sails and bent others, including a square sail, ho found it impossible to get steerage way on tho vessel, and the most he could do was to try to direct her drift towards New Zealand, or rather to help her in her drift in that direction. The course she took was at first inclined to tho northerly, then about cast. She was 442 miles from tbe Bluff when the steamer broke down, and 342 miles off when picked up. Tho Mokoia’s tow of the disabled steamer was in all 472 miles. As to food, Captain Chatfield had no anxiety, knowing that with the food-stuff's in the cargo he could have hung out for five months on rations of meat, potatoes, and oatmeal. Tho passengers behaved themselves remarkably well, and seemed not in the least dispirited, amusing themselves with eon- j certs and sports, and the Captain pointedly j refers to the excellent way in which the j crow worked. All the passengers embark ! on the Mokoia at 5.30 this evening.