BATTERED IN STORM

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 71, 21 February 1939, Page 8

BATTERED IN STORM

LINER MAKES PORT. DAMAGE TO CARGO. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Feb. 20. Caught at the beginning of her voyage from Liverpool to Auckland by a terrific mid-winter storm which swept the Atlantic Ocean and the English coast in the middle of last month, the 10,300-ton motor ship Opawa was practically hove-to for five days in the Irish Sea and St. George’s Channel. When she reached Auckland to-day, five days behind schedule, it was reported that the cargo in No. 1 hatch on the forward well deck had been damaged by water from a heavy sea which smashed two hatch covers. The Opawa cleared the Mersey on the afternoon of Saturday, January 14, and immediately encountered the force of a whole gale. For nearly a week conditions were the most severe one of the officers had experienced in 20 years. When a sea crashed through the hatch covers on the forward deck, the ship had to be put about to run from the gale and prevent possible serious consequences through flooding, and the manoeuvre of turning in* 3 the high seas was accomplished while the Opawa’s complement waited through long, anxious moments. Repairs were made to the covers, but the exent of the damage to the general cargo in No. 1 hatch, which is believed to be fairly severe, cannot be accurately estimated until the hold i» opened to-morrow. At the height of the gale the Opawa had to proceed to render assistance required by the steamer Piako, which was lying disabled when her steering gear broke down after leaving Glasgow in ballast for Waikokopu. The Opawa stood by the Piako for some hours, but resumed her voyage when the steamer advised that she was out of danger. It is considered that the motor-ship was fortunate in escaping comparatively lightly, as numbers of vessels were lost or badly damaged in the same storm on the Atlantic. One ship was broken in two, another lost her propeller, and several liners were severely battered. The Opawa is the second ship to reach Auckland from Liverpool in the past month with cargo damaged by sea water, the earlier vessel being the Kent.