TAHITI MIGHT HAVE FOUNDERED IN HALF-AN-HOUR

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7322, 4 September 1930, Page 7

TAHITI MIGHT HAVE FOUNDERED IN HALF-AN-HOUR

, Terrific Inrush of Water SAVED BT ENGINEER’S PRESENCE OP MIND Racing propellor must HAVE TORN GAPING HOLE Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Last Night. A graphic account of tho scene in the engine room of the Tahiti when the ■vessel’s propellor broke off was given T>y the members of tho engine room 6taff. “I was looking through the watertight door into the engine Toom when I heard a terrific noise,” said W. Geddcs, oil-burner attendant. “Instantly a rush of water came through the propellor tunnel and I shouted out * stop the starboard engine and shut off the fires.’ “Second Engineer A. Thomson, who was on duty, was standing at the dynamo. Before I had tho words out of my mouth he had jumped down and turned off tho throttle and the engines stopped dead. He then helped to shut the watertight door. It was all done in' a minute and if he had not acted so promptly I have not tho slightest doubt the ship would havo gone down In half an hour. ’ ’ W. Digney, another oil-burner attendant, said tho second engineer was tho hero of tho occasion. “You cannot praiso him too highly,” he said. He did exactly the right thing in the twinkling of an eye and I dread to think of what would havo happened if ho had made a mistake. / “Having shut off tho engines he rushed into the propellor tunnel to sec what had happened, but was thrown out by the force of water which was pouring through it. He then Tan round and got the pumps started. He did everything necessary in the spaco of a few moments. “STo one even saw the Teal damage that had been done in that tunnel. We do not know how the propellor came off but it did and the engines started to race like mad. Then the propebor shaft broke and its swinging motion must have torn a great hole in the shin’s hull. It is only surmise of course, but the ship shook terribly as the engines raced and the noise was deafening. 1 * William Brown, another oil-burner attendant, described bow the men v?orkcd in the pitch darkness with the help of electric torches and matches when the dynamo went out of action. “It was extremely uncanny creeping about in the dark in water up to our waists, he said. “Tho water seemed to rise and fall occasionally according to the working of tho pumps and the bulkhead moved and shook like a partly inflated waterbottle. It was continually leaking and we worked in a shower of sprav. Tho morning before we too* to tho'boats the old ship started to shudder and we knew it was ail up. All sections of tho crew praise the ship’s carpenter, George Bothwick, of Wellington, who worked continuously In the engine room propping up the bulkhead. . _ .... Describing the last of the Tahiti, a passenger said: After the ship was abandoned she rocked in the swell on an even keel. Then suddenly her stem dipped under the water. Her bow stood up almost perpendicularly and then with a groaning noise almost human she sank.