SHIPS COLLIDE

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 8 December 1925, Page 5

SHIPS COLLIDE

OFF SYDNEY HEADS. BOTH SERIOUSLY DAMAGED ONE SEAMAN LOST. MY CABLE- —PRESS ASSOCIATION— COPY RH.IGI, (Received Dee. 8, 11.45 a.m.) SYDNEY, Dec. 8. The passenger steamer Suva, 2229 tons, and the cargo carrier Chillagoe, 1495 tons, collided four miles off Sydney Heads. Both vessels were seriously damaged. One member of the Suva’s crew was lost overboard, and though lighted buoys were launched no trace of him could be found. . The Chillagoe was beached in the harbour, and the Suva, which was bound for Melbourne with a full passenger list, was compelled to return with badly damaged bows. The cause of the collision is a mystery, as the vessels, which were sighted from the signal station, appeared to have plenty of sea room. "When' the crash occurred most of the crew of the Chillagoe were below, and only eight feet away from where the bowe of the Suva tore a gaping hole in its side below the waterline. The water poured in, and the boats were launched, but an examination showed that the damage was not serious enough to warrant abandoning the ship. The first indications of the collision received at the signal station was from the Suva, which signaled that it had been in collision with the Chillagoe. The Suva then stood by, and the men were ordered to their boat stations. It was while swinging out one of the boats that the seaman, William Doyle, of Sydney, fell from the steamer. When Seaman Doyle fell from the Suva’s out-swung boat his cries could A be heard in the darkness, hut the search was unavailable. The Chillagoe' was beached on a steep sand-bank and it was necessary to keep the propellors working to prevent the steamer from slipping hack into deep water.