HARBOUR COLLISION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13452, 31 May 1907, Page 5

HARBOUR COLLISION.

PERRY STEAMER AND SCOW. The frequency with which collisions have occurred in the harbour lately has given rise to a certain amount of alarm, and if: they continue to go on unchecked it is only; a matter of time and a serious disaster | must eventuate. Yesterday another collision was added to the total, the colliding ves«iilfl being the passenger steamer Eagle and the scow Hobsonville. The Eagle left the Devonport ferry tee for Stanley Bay at a-quarter to ten a.m., and blew the regulation whistle as she was about to pass between the ends of the Queen-street and Railway Wharves. Owing to the shed at the end of the Queen-street Wharf and a large vessel being berthed there, the master of the Eagle was prevented from seeing the scow which was coming down the harbour, close into the wharf, and, therefore, when the Eagle got into the open fairway the Hobsonville was right upon her. Th& master of the Eagle immediately gave orders for full speed astern, but too late to avert a collision.

The Hobsonville st ruck the" ferry steamer amidships, damaging her sponson, and carrying away a. stairway leading down from the upper to the lower deck. The bowsprit of the scow was elso broken. Fortunately, the scow had little way on, or the damage would have been greater. The Eagle, which had some 30 or 40 passengers on board, resumed her, passage to Stanley Bay, and continued her ordinary running throughout the day, while the scow proceeded to the Railway Wharf, where she discharged a cargo of pipes. The. matter has been reported to the Collector of Customs, and it is probable that fen inquiry will be held.