AT FLORES

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3284, 5 July 1943, Page 8

AT FLORES

SHIP-SAVING FEAT SECOND EPIC OF AZORES TORPEDOED IN ROUGH SEA “ At Flores in the Azores,” recalls Tennyson’s description of the epic story in British naval history of the fight of Sir Richard Grenville in the Revenge against the long odds of 53 ships of the Spanish fleet. The same locality affords another story of naval heroism, this time to the glory of men of the merchant marine and a ship which was a wellknown visitor to New Zealand. She was the Hororata, a vessel of some 11,243 tons, which regularly traded between New Zealand and Great Britain. The story has now been told in a British Official Wireless message of May 9, that the ship, which was torpedoed 220 miles off Flores Island, the Azores, on December 13, delivered her cargo of 9600 tons of dairy produce and meat at a British port after a ship-saving feat without parallel. Captain F. S. Hamilton’s story, reported by the Ministry) of War Trans-

port, says that when the ship was torpedoed in very rough sea, the crew ■mustered at action stations as she listed badly to port, but as she answered to the helm and engines, a course was shaped for Flores Island. From a gaping hole in the ship’s side, cases of cargo drifted clear and, as the water rushed in, the ship rapidly lost stability. Condition Critical At 7 a.m. on December 14, the ship was brought to anchor at Flores Island. Her condition was critical. The captain realised it would be impossible to attempt even most elementary repairs at Flores, and decided to make a dash for Horta, 130 miles away. The journey had to be made secretly, for it was almost certain there were enemy agents on shore ready to signal the ship’s movements to U-boats lurking outside. Accordingly, the main body of the crew was left on shore, and, with those remaining on board at action stations throughout the voyage, the Hororata ■made the perilous trip to Horta by night. She reached there safely on December 18. ■Port Horta is not a shipyard—it has no dry dock, no plentiful supply of girders, and no dump of timber, and a great deal of improvisation was necessary in repairing the ship. A diver was found to do the underwater work, trees were cut down from hills beyond Horta, scrap railway lines were fabricated into girders, and, because there were no modern tools and bolts, rivets were made by hand.

By January 23, the ship had been pumped dry, and cementing began on February 18. Between then and February 24, 320 tons of cement mixture was poured into the frame. On the $ advice of a local expert, 14 days were allowed to elapse for hardening the concrete, and on March 6 the vessel received a certificate of seaworthiness with a patch 45 by 32 feet over the hole made by the torpedo, the Horarata sailed for home.