TYPHOON AT KOBE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 281, 25 October 1934, Page 11

TYPHOON AT KOBE

EYE-WITNESSES’ ACCOUNTS. TERRIFYING SCENES. The commander (Captain M. B. Skinner) of the Nankin, which arrived in Brisbane the other day, gave a vivid description of the scenes in Kobe harbour during the recent typhoon. The confusion along the waterfront was beyond description, ho said. Oceangoing liners berthed alongside Kobe piers suffered severe damage, though they were sheltered by the breakwaters from the mountainous seas which were running outside the harbour. The America Maru, on the adjacent pier to the Nankin, although stoutly lashed to the wharf and with two anchors down, broke away and collided with the Takusan Maru, which was astern of the Nankin. The Blue Eunnel freighter Phemius, after breaking her moorings, drifted helplessly across the bows of the Harbin Maru, both ships being damaged above the waterline. Many smaller vessels were wrecked, lighters were lifted on to wharves, and cargo was strewn about tlio docks. Most of the damage to shipping in Kobe harbour was caused by a tidal Avave, which rose about 12 feet and swamped the wharves. Damage to merchandise in the pier sheds in Kobe harbour was estimated at £1,000,000. Thrilling stories of the typhoon were also told by passengers on the Nankin. Miss Lynette Young, of Toorak, Melbourne, who Avas aboard the Nankin in Kobe Harbour Avhen the typhoon struck Japan, said that through the porthole of her cabin she watched ships plunging and straining, at their moorings, and saAV some breaking away. Snapping steel cables as if they Avere cotton threads, the ships drifted, like bobbing corks, across the intervening water and crashed into other A r essels moored opposite them. A tidal wave SA\ r ept suddenly 0A r er the harbour, and Avharves disappeared. Men could be seen struggling along the wharves through Avater up to four feet deep. The Chichibu Maru, a vessel of 20,000 tons, and the pride of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha Line. Avas Avrenched from her moorings and crashed into a wharf opposite, sustaining serious damage. Nine bodies Avere recovered after this accident. Several other ships broke

loose and drifted helplessly about the harbour, bumping into other craft and causing much damage to plates and superstructure. When on her Avav from Hong Kong to Manila the Nankin experienced another typhoon, which Avas terrifying to the passengers. Receiving word, of the approaching typhoon, the Nankin deviated from her course, and ran Avitli the Avind on the quarter all night, going 200 miles out of her course, programme. 11.0: Close.