A LEAK IN THE BOILER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19060, 3 July 1925, Page 11

A LEAK IN THE BOILER.

VESSEL SAVED BY CEMENT. INCIDENT OF THE MANUKAU. AN OLD STORY RECALLED. The fetory of the steamer Flora's disablement last week brings to mind other coastal struggling.'!, among them the fix that tho little steamer Go Ahead, a quarter of the size of the Flora, fought out" of on the west coast of tho North Island in tho 'seventies. "Peter Simple," a Dunedin resident, who was at the time an able seaman on this craft, tells the tale in a Dunedin paper. "We were going up from Raglan and Waitara to the Manukau, with sheep on deck and cattle in the hold," says tho writer. "Tho westerly wind freshened, and kicked up a sea, and as tho Go Ahead was light and tho sea abeam, and she hadn't much power, we blew to leeward, rather nearer the shore than Captain Austin or any of us liked. So he starboarded the helm, and put her nose into it, intending to get a bit of sea room before turning to run in over the Manukau Bar. "We were wondering whether our weak-engined hooker would manage to creep off in the teeth of the westerly, and were just thinking that she was doing a little when the steam ran down, and tho engineer reported a leak in the boiler. A pretty pickle! No possibility of help. If wo couldn't keep off the rocks toward which wo woro drifting there was nothing for it but the vessel piling up ashore, and then only the mercy of Heaven to sa.ve us. "As it happened, however, the Go Ahead was carrying some casks, of cement as cargo, and all hands set to, for bare life, to break open and damp this cement and pack it in under the boiler in the hope of thus stopping the leak. Stations were appointed, every man bent his back to his job, and for half an hour it was even betting whether our efforts would succeed—the engineers doing their best to keep the screws revolving if ever so slow, the mon sweating at their awkward work. "At last we noticed the leak diminish, and felt the thrust of the propellers doing good, and an hour later we were in deep water. It was a relief, I can tell you, when we weathered the last point, and realised that we were in the fairway of the south channel."