INDRABARAH ASHORE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15299, 12 May 1913, Page 7

INDRABARAH ASHORE.

j - • lp;\ ; • Mfjs BEACH NEAR WANGANUI. vtSV. - 1 |p-: refloating expected. : I men stand by vessel. I heavy weather on coast. BOAT CREW'S HAZARDOUS ROW pi ASHORE. • . "V.l ' * • i- [BY telegraph.— association.] ■' Wangaxtti, Sunday. ' i During the severe westerly gale on Fri- : . day night, the Tyser steamer Indrabarah Xf:[ was stranded on a beacli seven miles north of the Rangitikei River, and about 25 miles from Wanganui. The vessel is . now lying stem on to sea, and it is reported ;; • that there is every prospect of refloating is her. The Indrabarah was bound from Gisborne for Wanganui to load frozen meat. v She was due about 9 p.m. on Friday, and (' is reported to have arrived oft* the road- > stead, but th© weather being very bad, •if put to sea again, and at four o'clock next ;ir morning took the beach. The land in the vicinity is very low-lying, with .broad 1 belts of sandhills, and at night is very hard to discern. At six o'clock on Saturday »morning a farmer, observing distress signals, went to the beach in their direction. He saw I;-,. rockets. It- was then still fairly dark, but he could just make out a boat's crew- . pulling to the shore from the-, helpless liner. The boat had a crew of 10, who

landed after a- perilous trip over the intervening breakers, which rolled in with W great force before a strong westerly. One fc man, named Andrew Monson, a stevedore. was washed out of the boat, and "had it not been for the efforts of the Z.- second mate, he .would assuredly have ; been drowned. ■ ; -V- Mouson was on the Star of Canada at the time of her wreck. He says this was V the closest call be ever experienced, •fv ' The settlers displayed great hospitality, and the unfortunate sailors were supplied with a tent and food, - ; ; :f: 0 The first report- received in Wanganui ft stated that the Indrabarah was being Kv pounded by heavy seas, and was breaking up fast. She was then lying broadside t on, and bearing the full weight of the rolling ocean. This , report proved alto- % • gether wrong, for the Indrabarah is j r ' V "weathering very- well, though there is ".. danger of her sinking into the sand. v*•• v• *- ~•» . . DETAILS OF THE MISHAP I STORY BY MEMBER OF CREW BOAT'S BATTLE IN THE SURF, ':• [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Pauieksto.v North, Sunday. The story of the mishap to the Indrabarah was told by one of. a -boat's crew • who came ashore on Saturday. He would say nothing about details leading up to grounding. • It seems the v Indrabarah picked up Wanganui Heads lights late on Friday *■ night, - but - the -sea being rough • and the weather bad/ could get no holding anchorage. The captain kept her moving along the coast, and it appears the grounding occurred while about to turn. The shock was fairly . severe. Some

of the men being thrown out 'of their

bunks. 4 She grounded at the nose. Strenuous efforts were made, to back her off, but all to no purpose. The captain thought they were near Wanganui. Signals were sent up, and these were heard some distance inland. *- J- • About 7 a.m. on Saturday, the sea moderating somewhat, and the boat havj. ing swung round broadside to the shore, the second .officer,' - Adcock,- was put in. < charge of six ' men and the lifeboat, and . sent ashore 'to get. a message away. The. stevedores on board were also sent with .the party to act as messengers. Heroic Eescue in the Surf. • The landing, however, was extremely dangerous. The coast at all times is rough, but huge waves were rolling in. . One got the boat, she broached to, and one of the stevedores, A. Monson, 'of Napier, was washed overboard. Like all t' the crew he had a lifebelt on. Ho was 4 . swept away on the wave, clinging to "an oar. The second officer was also swept out, but some of the crew clutched and • . pulled him back. The boat got successfully through the breakers, and was beached. Adcock, the second officer, at once stripped, and with-a lifeline round him • went out into the breakers for Monson. For half an hour he battled out. Monson had already been in water half, an hour. He is a giant in size, but was quite exhausted by now. At last Adcock reached him, and' both were then hauled to the shore by means of the lifeline. Monson himself declares Adcock a hero. Indeed, one has only to see: the , heavy seas to realise what determination, pluck, endurance, and real heroism Adcock must have shown. ;i . . All through the night the Indrabarah • swung about. This morning she had come in about a hundred yards nearer, other- ' wise there was no change in her posi- . tion. Captain Rainey, of Wellington, and : the company's, representees, were on the beach. Boats cannot put off, and no i more of the crew have come ashore since the first boat landed. Communication, with the shore is done by semaphore signals. Message Seat in a Bottle.

' , The rest of the story is told.in a message sent ashore in a bottle from Captain • Hollingsworth, a3 ' follows, to Captain Rainev:—"At 9 a.m. (Sunday) the ship is bumping a good deal. We shall wcrk oar engines again. The draught when • leaving Gisborne was 18ft 6in and 21ft. Roth propellers are damaged. The holds t. : are remaining dry. All hands are well. !;■: .We tried hard last night to get off. One g boat went adrift this morning. Assist- ! ance is urgently needed. We could not put ['• out an anchor with our boats, there bej[.v . ing too much swell. (Signed) Hollingsp worth." The boat referred to- now lies I' on thn beach. K. ' ' g:;: VALUE OF THE VESSEL. Mf " ■ ' Sit • . v•.. ESTIMATED AT ABOUT £100,000. jffJS'-; §!<£>•; - ■- rr* Ms, • ? THE CARGO ABOARD. The local agents for the steamer IndraH.< i ba»ah are - Messrs. Heather, Roberton and h; Company. At a rough estimate the value er of the .••vessel ,is set . down -y at : about §£ £100,000. ;%It;is ,at present .. impossible to H estimate the value of the cargo aboard. sfejjk;-'-"It-;"- is v- understood that the vessel is gfe v covered 2by' an : insurance with: Lloyd's. -'tWiSi* KL.' i #■:*£ r -fo-.' . ;hi i ti i—■■

The risk on the cargo is distributed among several offices, including Lloyds, but no details are available locally. The Indrabarah, while at Auckland in April, loaded the following cargo for London : —SO tons flax, 615 packages of kauri gum, 4 casks casein, and a few packages of sundries. .The flax was shipped by Carr, Pountney and Company, and the gum by S. : Winterbourne and Company and G. W. S. Patterson. A Press Association message from Gisborne states that the vessel loaded' the following .cargo at that port:—264 bales of wool, 405 casks of tallow, 132 casks of pelts, 12,542 carcases of mutton, 3129 carcases of lamb, and 1280. quarters of beef. At Napier she loaded 43,000 carcases of mutton, 700 casks of tallow, 400 bales of wool, and 205 bales of flax. PERILOUS COASTLINE. MANY PREVIOUS WRECKS. ( • PROSPECTS FOR REFLOTATION. . / . [BY TELEGRAPH. —SPECIAL REPORTER.] Palmerston North, Sunday The position where the ill-fated Tyser liner Indrabarah ran is on a portion of the lengthy sandy coastline several miles north of the mouth of the Rangitikei River. The nearest township of consequence is Bulls. From Bulls to the wreck the distance is . about 12 miles, the first part being by dray road for about eight miles, and the remainder on foot over a stretch of sandhills, a strenuous walk of four miles to the sea.

The vessel* is lying about a quarter of a mile off the shore, with her nose buried in the sand, and her stern swinging out to sea. The soft bed of sand is not likely to do much damage to the hull, which is sure to sink into a stable bed in the course of a day or two. To-day a strong wind was blowing in from the sea, which came towards the shore in breakers of immense size. The crew are standings by < the steamer, and were signalling to the shore by semaphore to-day.

A Graveyard for Ships. The stretch of sandy coastline, over 100 miles in length, which stretches from Paekakariki, 30 miles north of Wellington, to the mouth of the Wanganui River, has an evil reputation for wrecks. At Cape Terawhiti there . is a strong tidal rip, which mariners say affects the set of the currents to the north, and /along this stretch of sandy beach. That such was tKe case in the wrecks of several sailing ves sels has been accepted as correct. One of the earliest wrecks on the coast was that lof the : City of Auckland, which went aground near the Otaki River, and became a total wreck. The next wreck ,of importance was that of the fine iron barque Hyderabad, one of the East Indian type of merchantmen, which went ashore in 1877 close to the mouth of the Manawatu River. There was a great scene on board the vessel when she struck, the passengers, of whom there were some hundreds, being thrown into a state -of panic. ' No lives were lost, and the vessel was abandoned. Later came the grounding of the ship Pleione, and the barque Weathersfield, both of which were got off after many months of patient work. There are many "bones" of < smaller vessels along the coastline. The latest vessel; to find her way on to the beach was the barque Pelotas, which went aground a few weeks ago a .short distance to the north of where the Indrabarah now lies. She was towed off and taken into the Wanganui River.

Previous Vessels Successfully . Salved. It is considered by some with an expert knowledge .of the . coast that the Indrabarah will be successfully got off the sandy beach. The experience of the salvaging of the Pleione and Weathersfield points to this. Though these boats were on the beach for months,- and were buffeted by the heavy seas from numerous gales, they were, after much patient work, finally floated off to sail the seas. They were worked- off shore by means of mushroom anchors planted in the sandy bottom a long way out to sea. Although ,at low tide it was possible to walk round these vessels, dryfooted, yet through the strain put on the anchors at each high tide they were worked inch by inch until they finally floated into deep water. The Indrabarah would probably have been towed off yesterday had the tug Terawhiti arrived on the scene, but it was thought th£ bad weather had caused her to shelter under Kapiti Island. /The speedy arrival of the tug means a great ' deal at present, for the work becomes harder each high tide. The manner in which the vessels aground on this coast work inshore may be gauged from the fact that- the Indrabarah moves

slightly inshore with every breaker. Disposal of the Crew.

It was a thrilling scene wheri* the boat capsized in the breakers. Monson, who was almost drowned, and received a severe buffeting, is at present in Bulls with a mate. He moved from the hotel to the doctor s resi-

dence to-day. The second mate, Adcock, who rescued Monson ffom drowning, is on shore with nine of the crew. The captain and the rest of the ship's company are aboard the ship, and to-day the second mate was all day exchanging signals by means of semaphore. The men ashore are being housed at the adjacent flaxmills.

There is no immediate danger to the men aboard the ship. There appears no reason to suppose that the hull will be found damaged if the vessel is towed off. The vessel is estimated to have been 35 miles off her course, but in the darkness of the night the officers would have no reason to suspect danger until the vessel actually struck, there being no high land within many miles of the coast.

TUG GONE TO THE RESCUE. TERAWHITI LEAVES WELLINGTON [BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Wellington, Sunday. The Union Company's Terawhiti got away from Wellington at seven o'clock this morning, on her way to the scene of the mishap to the Indrabarah. AN UNFORTUNATE COMPANY. MANY LOSSES IN RECENT YEARS. DESCRIPTION OF THE VESSEL. The Tyser line has been particularly unfortunate recently in connection with marine casualties to several steamers of its fleet. It is only about four years ago since the Indradevi was seriously damaged by fire at. Auckland, and < some years previous to that the Niwaru went ashore at Napier, but was eventually floated off and brought to Auckland. She occupied the Calliope Dock for several months, where extensive repairs were effected which cost thousands 'of pounds. The well-known steamer Star of Canada was driven ashore - I i' ' " '■ ai i i^—i■dfcnw—

at Gisborno last year in a gale, and although an effort was made to save the vessel, she has since been abandoned, and has become a total wreck. The Star of New Zealand was damaged in a collision in the English Channel last year, and the Star of Australia was towed to Aden with a broken propeller shaft while on , the

passage from Australia to London. The Indrabarah is a new steamer of 7395 gross tons, and was on her fifth visit to the Dominion. She was built at Newcastle in 1910 by Messrs. Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, Limited, for the Indra Line, Limited. She- is 471ftin length, with a beam of 58ft 6in, and a depth of • 31in 6in. As stated, the vessel is owned by the Indra*Line, bat has been running in conjunction with ' the Tyser Line. Her engines and boilers, which were supplied by the Wallsend Slipway Co., are of the latest pattern, the indicated horse-power being 6000, with five single-ended boilers working -at 2001b pressure to the inch, with Howden's forced draught, and constructed to maintain a sea-speed loaded

of ovor 15 knots. The steamer was built under the supervision of Messrs. W. Esplen and Sons, consulting engineers, James Street, Liverpool. The steamer is fitted with the latest refrigerating plant by Messrs. Hall's, of Dartford, and is well suited to carry successfully large quantities of frozen and "chilled" produce. Iler cargo gear is very handy, an unusual number of latest pattern winches, and extra long derricks for roadstead work, and a heavy weight derrick for 20 tons. To further facilitate the rapid handling of cargo, in addition to the usual electric lighting, she is fitted with a complete installation of acetylene flare lights to each hatch, giving brilliant illumination, the combined capacity being 17,000 candle-power- The accommodation for officers and engineers is excellent, each having a separate well-furnished room. The accommodation for seamen and fire-, men is situated aft, and was carefully planned, being very commodious and comfortable, with large messrooms attached, with fitted tables, seats, and M'ash-house. _ . ■ The Indrabarah was fitted with a wireless telegraphy outfit just before she left London for Australian and New Zealand ports in February last. On her maiden voyago.to Melbourne last year she maintained an average speed of 12 knots an hour. •

On her present trip the Indrabarah arrived at Auckland on the morning of April 21 from London, via Melbourne and Sydney, after a fine weather passage. She discharged over 2000 tons of cargo at the Railway Wharf, and then proceeded to Napier and Wellington to land the balance. Before leaving Auckland the . vessel loaded a quantity of cargo for London. She was to have completed her loading at Wellington, from which port departure was to have been taken for London. Captain A. E. Hollingsworth, who is in command of the Indrabarah, is well known throughout New Zealand, he having fisited the Dominion as commander of nearly every steamer of the Tyser Line. Captain Hollingsworth only took command of the Indrabarah at London this trip, after being ashore for 12 months on sick leave. The other officers of the Indrabarah are Chief, Mr. Stafford; second, Mr. Adcock; third, Mr. Hill; chief engineer, Mr. Morris second, Mr. Young- . • RUN OF HEAVY WEATHER. : ROUGH TIME AT GISBORNE. [BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Gisborne, Sunday. The steamer Indrabarah experienced very stormy weather during ••.her coast loading. She arrived at Gisborne last. Sunday afternoon, during a howling southerly gale, and was forced to shelter under Young Nick's Head until the following day, when the cargo loading was proceeded with, under such difficulties, however, that though the vessel was expected to sail for Wanganui on Wednesday, she ultimately did not get away until Thursday afternoon.