KAKAPO REACHES PORT WITH INJURED OFFICER

Northern Advocate, 27 January 1938, Page 11

KAKAPO REACHES PORT WITH INJURED OFFICER

t Special To “Northern ' Advocate”] I NEW PLYMOUTH. This Day. ! After a race for 34 hours through ex- | tremcly stormy seas, the coastal | steamer Kakapo arrived at New PJyi mouth and the fourth engineer who j was gravely injured was immediately j given medical care. ! The injured man was Mr William George Crawford, aged about 25, who suffered a fall in stormy weather off Westport and received a fracture of ■ the frontal bone of the skull and of the . jaw, and other facial and head injuries.

Could Not Return To Westport

A member of the crew found Mr Crawford lying in an alleyway semiconscious when the vessel was about 40 miles from Westport with a load of coal for Auckland. Ho had apparently fallen, or been thrown against some projecting object by the rough sea. There was a deep wound on the forehead, and as the Kakapo carries no surgeon, the members of the crew did what was possible with the first-aid equipment carried.

Captain D. N. McLeish was in a dilemma for, although hear Westport, he could not return because the bar would not. be workable in such weather. The only thing he could do was to steam at full speed ahead for New Plymouth—l6G miles away. Slow Progress, The Kakapo is ordinarily capable of 12 knots, but the violent conditions made progress slow. Dr. H. P. Gray was waiting with an ambulance on the wharf when the Kakapo steamed into the port in comparative calm. He had received a radio message from the boat, and was ready to transfer Mr Crawford to the New Plymouth Hospital.

An X-ray examination was made and an operation immediately performed. Mr Crawford’s condition is critical.