U-BOAT CHEATED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 7 January 1944, Page 3

U-BOAT CHEATED

SHIP REPAIRED WITH CONCRETE PRIMITIVE EQUIPMENT USED A Captain F. S. Hamilton, while in an Australian port, told the remarkable story of how his new 14,000-ton freighter, the Hororata, after having been badly damaged by a torpedo, was temporarily repaired on an island with primitive and improvised equipment. .It was able to deliver in good condition, 10,000 tons of a cargo of 11,600 tons of butter, meat, wool, and cheese from Australia. When the vessel reached England, a high salvage authority described the re- • pairs as “without parallel in the his- _ tory of shipping.” In recognition of Captain Hamilton’s achievement in bringing home the Hororata, the King awarded him the C.B.E. At 3.30 p.m. on 13th Decerrfber, 1942, after the Hororata had slowed down for a gale 234 miles north-west of Flores Island, one of the Azores, she was struck on the port side by a torpedo from an enemy, submarine. The ship was listing badly and settling by the stern. Two of the aft holds were flooded. By 7 a.m. next day, however, Captain Hamilton had brought his ship to anchor at Flores. After the vessel had been pumped out, the principal damage was ; seen to be a hole in th£ side, measur- | ing 45ft by 31ft 6in. It took three days to j navigate the disabled ship to Horta, 130 miles from Flores. BULLOCKS HAUL PINE “At Horta,” said Captain Hamilton, j “there was only a little engineering shop ! with obsolete tools. Green pine was j cut from the crater of an extinct volcano and hauled by bullocks to con- j struct frames for concrete; bolts and j rivets were made by hand; strips of i plates five-eighths of an inch thick and i angle bars had to be cut with a cold i set because no gas or welding apparatus I was available.” During the last war, Captain Hamilton was in charge of shipyards in England, where concrete barges were being built. On the Hororata he had a set of plans for the construction of concrete ships, and they now proved very useful. “In two and a half months,” said Captain Hamilton, “the Portuguese workmen did a wonderful job. With their aid, we built a reinforced concrete wall j to replace the damaged and missing 1 shell plating, using 375 tons of concrete, j reinforced with one-inch round bars, old tramway rails, and damaged brine j pipes. A Portuguese fisherman-diver ( worked 18 hours a day under water for i two months.” The temporary repairs were finished j on 24th February, and the ship completed the voyage to England at the rate I of 16 knots. Four months’ work in an English shipyard subsequently obliter- ' ated ail trace of the torpedo damage.