TAHITI DISASTER

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 12 September 1930, Page 5

TAHITI DISASTER

CAUSE INVESTIGATED

BROKEN PROPELLER SHAFT

HOLE’S RIPPED IN HULL

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, 'Sept. 11. The nautical inquiry info the .loss of the Tahiti was continued this afterneon. The court consisted of Mr E. Page, SjM., Captain Worrall (nautical assessor), Mr Parker (engineer ass es-s-on) and Mr Huntley (naval architect). Mr J. Prendevillo appeared for the Marine Department with Mr E. K. Kirkcaldie, with him Mr E. Parry, for the master and deck officers, Mr E. P. Hay, far the engineers and Mr C. G. White for the Union Steamship Company. 'Duncan McKenzie, second officer, who was on watch when the accident occurred, said there was a rather rough sea, < with a long, heavy swell. At. about 4.30 a.m. he felt a violent vibration and dull rumbling sound. The engineroom rang stop in albout a minute, indicating that they had stopped. He knew something very unusual had happened in the- engine-roam. Witness immediately went down- and notified the captain. He was out of bed. While speaking to the captain a messenger arrived from the engine-room with a verbal message that apparently the starboard tail-shaft had broken) the tunnel. The water-tight door was closed, but the engine-room was filling rapidly. Witness went back to the bridge. The Tahiti was still steering her course, the other engine going slowly. • At approximately 6 o’clock he was sent by the captain to see that all . the boats were in order for a hurried abandonment of the ship. He saw that all the boats had extra, provisions and that everything was ready for any emergency. It was 6.15 (when the port engine stopped. Witness was on board the Tahiti till the last boat left and returned with the master for a final look round. All. the boats and life-saving appliance were in perfect order.

VESSEL STARTS TO LIST,

Ho heard nothing before the rumbling. Prom the beginning of August 15 t o the night of August 16 the vessel kept upright, but after that it listed to port. 'That, was adjusted by shiftiiugl heavy stores iix the second saloon.

Mr Norman Siepen, chief officer, said he had been making his second trip on the vessel at the time the trouble occurred. He was sleeping and was aroused by the second officer. He went at once to the engine-room and found the conditions 'as described by 'Captain Totem. He found from two to four feet of water in No. 4 hold and he reported immediately to the captain. No. 3 but not No. 4 hold contained cargo, which was afloat. Mr Siepen took over supervision of the pumping and bailing. Mr Prendeville: Can you give any estimate of the quantity of the water you bailed?

Witness: Yes. 1 estimated that we were bailing at the rate of 150 gallons a minute.

“Have you any idea whether the ship’® side was smashed or whether the water was coming l from the stern tube?”—“No, I cannot say at all.” The vessel same by the stern, said witness. The use of a collision mat was impracticable. To 'Mr Huntley witness said he had ordered as much timber as possible to bo taken to the engine-room, in order to bo on the safe side, not because the bulkhead was showing immediate signs of giving way. Mr Robert 'Wilson, able seaman, said that at the outset there was -another sound beside the rumbling for which he could not account.

Air Frank Davidson, wireless operator, gave evidence that he was on duty on the morning of August 15. Ho was practically above the bulkhead. Witness sent; messages after the alarm, but mas unable to send any from 6.16 a.m. until the evening at 5 o’clock, when more were dispatched. An emergency wireless set was in one of the boats and with the erection of a temporary aerial this was brought into, use.

Mr Archibald Thomson, second engineer on the Tahiti, said he had l been on the vessel for three years and nine months, and had previously served on her. die had 'known of no irregularity with the propeller shaft. The first alarming noise made witness think the whole, of the starboard engine was lifting. The engine then started to race very violently. Witness stopped the engine.'immediately. He then ran down to investigate thci damage.

Witness entered the tunnel and went two or three feet aft of the centre bulkhead, passing through the centre door. 'The tunnel was about 100 feet long and 8 or 10 feet high.

WATER UNCONTROLLABLE.

“When I got along through, the tunnel the •well was full and' water was coming from the starboard side aft of the bulkhead/’ said”witness. “A great sheet of water was coming over the port side; it was coming right across to the other side. ’ ’ (Mr Prendeville: 'Coming in a solid mass to the bulkhead?—ln. a solid wall. iMr Page: WEat light had you? —The lights were on in the deck-head. I could see plainly. Mr Prendeville: You saw this volume of water and ran out-?—I ran out. Did you have a chance to close the centre door? —No, there was too much water in the tunnel. The water caught up to you? —Yes, there was no possibility of closing the door. There was also the possibility of the engineer coming down into the engine-room, seeing the water and as he should have done shutting the door, and I was inside. Witness said that after getting out of the tunnel lie sent a man named Jtooke to close the nearer door. That was the one opening from the tunnel on to the engine-room. Witness was positive not more than a minute elapsed from the time ho heard the noise to the shutting of the inner door. All the time the door was shut water was pouring into* the engine-room. It came into the engine-room before the* door was shut. One man was swept away and so were some dishes on a bench three feet high. Witness thought there was an increase in the flow of water as he ran out of the tunnel. He threw some sacks* over the dynamo to protect it, said witness. Water was )welling up white and boiling from under the plates of the bulkhead and was coming from the bilges. After the bulkhead was closed witness sent, advice to the captain. Doing into the stokehold, witness asked a stoker: “[Did you feel any-

thing?” The other replied 1 : ‘'‘Feel it! The boilers were meeting.” The cap- ! tain then came down and took over, witness going to the pumps. The door was not the danger in the engine-room, but the water which was gushing up from under the engine-room. JBy 6 o’clock witness was up fro his neck in water. The vessel had a list to port. The plates were all up., making pitfalls, and (work was very difficult. Sometimes witness was sitting in the iwater. The dynamo was flooded and the- fans had stopped. At 10 o’clock that night there was a decided bulge in the bulkhead, cracking the paint. The dynamo was kept in reserve for the wireless and only a few lights were used. “ l think that the. propeller shaft broke on the scarf,” said witness-.when asked his opinion as to what had happened. “The'propellor tended to remain stationary and the engine end of the shaft to continue revolving and so the ship’s side was carried away. The propeller and the shaft must have been pulled out. “ ‘The ship’s side is gone, the ship’s side -is punctured.’ That is what T reported to the chief engineer. The break must have been between the last coupling nndi the peak-head glands.” Witness said the whipping shafts would need to describe a circle of only four or five inches to knock the side of the ship owing to the shape of the stern. 'Like a huge flail it would punch out the side of the ship at the first shock. The boilers had danced in the stokehold. The inquiry was adjourned till tomorrow morning.