EARTHQUAKE AT SEA

Marlborough Express, Volume LI, Issue 45, 22 February 1917, Page 3

EARTHQUAKE AT SEA

SNAPS SHIPS PROPELLER

A submarine earthquake which lusted for 48 seconds and was so v»o----lent < that, it snapped a blade off the ship's propeller, was reported hy Captain Van Wyck Juriasse of the Datcli liner Tjikembang, on his arrival at San Francisco from Batavia.

T)ic steamer was out one day from Ngasaki, st(?aming at 14 knots through a sir.ooth sea when a shock v.vs felt as if the liner had struck a submerged rook. Then the shaking started. The ship was shaken, said the skipper, like a rat in the teeth o!: a terrier, shaken until all on board feared she would fly to pieces. Panic seized the Oriental crew mid ihc: steerage passengers and the cabin passengers made frantic efforts to launch a lifeboat. Cairn was restored when the- vibrations' ceased, but the Tjikembang had to limp all the wny to Hongkong, where she was dry-docked and another propeller shipped.