ACCIDENT TO A BARQUE

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11885, 8 May 1899, Page 5

ACCIDENT TO A BARQUE

ON A REEF AT TIMARU. The people of Timaru were given a cause for excitement on Saturday morning by the news that a barque had got over Pat-iti Reef in a thick fog that prevailed, and had struck on one of the inner patches of reef. By the merest chance a carter happened, to bfe discharging a load af the rubbish-tip at Patiti Point, and through a temporary thinning of the fog, he saw the vessel cross the reef, and, as he supposed, heard the crash of her striking. It was subsequently learned, however, that the noise he heard was the letting-go of the anchor. He drove fast to town, and informed the harbourmaster. The fog was so thick that nothing could be seen of the vessel from the shore, though the voices of the men on board could be distinctly heard. The harbour-master went out in the tug, outside the reef, and sent a. whale-boat inside to locate the vessel. The news was received about 11 a.m., and the fog lifted about 1 p.m., up to which time the tug had not reached the ship. Bub when the fog cleared little time elapsed before the tug was inside, and preparing to tow the ship out, and by 1.46 the John Gambles, for this was the vessel in trouble, was on the way to the anchorage in the roadstead.

Captain Wielke stated, that he was *in a thick fog all Friday night. At 6- a.m. on Saturday the fog lifted a little, and he -saw that he was near land, but before he could make out anything more the fog settled down again. About 10.30 a.m. thr; ship was found to be on the reef; she bumped three times, and was then in deeper water, and. the anchor was let go, the vessel then being, as was afterwards seen, inside the main Patiti Reef, and about half a mile from the shore, off the Hospital. It is stated ■that the vessel was making no water. Captain Willis, Lloyd’s Surveyor, was in Timaru, and he decided that the vessel must go at once to Lyttelton to be docked, and she was anchored in the roadstead until arrangements could be made for towing her up either by the Harbour Board’s tug or the Union Steamship Company’s s.s. Corinna, which was in port, and bound for Lyttelton in the evening. Fortunately, there was only a very moderate swell on the _ sea, or \the consequences of crossing Patiti Reef would have been more serious. The fog having quite cleared away, the operation of getting the vessel out, of the corner in which she found herself was watched by hundreds of people from the shore, and it was a great relief to see her moved quietly away, apparently none the worse for having got so badly out of her coarse’! <

The John Gambles is an iron barque of 1066 tons, built at Warrington in 1874, and owned 'by W. Price and Co. She was on her 'way to Timaru from Brisbane, with about 500 tons of coal as ballast, the coal consigned to the Canterbury Farmers’ Co-operative Association, and was to load grain for London on account of Messrs Friedlander Bros., of Ashburton.

[From Our Correspondent.] TIMARU, May 7. The John Gambles went on to Lyttelton last night under sail. .