AN UNLUCKY STEAMER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19124, 16 September 1925, Page 15

AN UNLUCKY STEAMER.

SERIES OF MISFORTUNES. PORT AUGUSTA'S EXPERIENCES. HOMEWARD BOUND AT LAST. [FROM OUR OW.V CORRESPONDENT.] CAPETOWN. Aug 14. A stirring story of the sea is told by the crew of the tramp steamer Port Augusta, which arrived in Durban this week, and is now on the way to England. - The steamer originally left Fowley, in Cornwall, with a full cargo of China clay intended for America. Twenty-four hours after the voyage started a terrible hurricane lashed the vessel, and gale after gale swept the f-hip from fore to aft on the way across the Atlantic. Terrific seas carried away all the loose gear on deck, and a thumping crested wave crashed over the stern and crippled the steering gear. No one on board had ever oxperienced anything like it, said the chief officer, Mr. G. Harris, when relating his adventures. "It was utterly beyond all of us, and we had given up hope that we were going to live through it- ' "When tho steering gear was broken, the boatswain pluckily tried to move along the slushing decks to give a hitch to a rope fast breaking loose, when another monster wave bore down as tho Port Augusta lay wallowing in the trough of the sea, and . the boatswain was plucked up bodily and battered against the wood work. We managed to save him from being taken away with the receding water, but when he was carried below it was found that his thigh was fractured. l >

"Three others were injured in the process, but a week or so afterwards saw us right. "During tho time that tho Port Augusta lay helpless, buffeted about by the giant' seas, some of the men knelt down in a sheltered part of the forecastle and uttered fervent prayers to heaven. They thought their last hours were drawing near.

"Although hove to, however, and subjected to the full force of the battering ram of the tremendous seas, the boat was able to shake herself free from each rolling wave as it crashed over her, and three davs later saw the ,Port Augusta making little headway and once more under control."

The vessel's dead weight tonnage is 1200.

Coal Supplies Give Out.

Before she reached Philadelphia, another terror swept down on the ship. Tho coal gave out, and • over 70 miles of surging sea had to be covered before the ship could reach safety. To make matters worse a tliiek snow storm settled in and closed round in an impenetrable mantle. Tho officers only had a hazy notion of their bearings, for the sun and tho stars at night were completely blotted out from view. Plifnks were torn up to keep the boilers going, and every stray piece of furniture that the ship had and could be done away with was thrown on to the furnaces to keep up enough steam to give the ship headway. From the empty bunkers were snatched the Wooden supports and everything that showed any likelihood of burning. The steam pressure dropped considerably, for the wood did .not give the heat that tho spent coal had done. Nevertheless, two, and sometimes three, knots were managed in an hour. The Port Augusta literally crawled across those last stretches of ocoan toward the American coast, but at last it was managed and just in the nick of time, for the last wood had been thrown into the furnaces. When they came to safety the engines were only just turning over. ■ The voyage from America to Australia was a trifle less adventurous, but at Auckland, New Zealand, a fireman from the ship was drowned. For some unaccountable reason he jumped off a crane into tho harbour. In Wellington the master, Captain Kippins, was involved in a bad motor smash, which sent him to hospital for some time, while several of the crew were hurt in various ways. Before Port Kembla was reached a bad bout of engine trouble had to be surmounted and then when at last the ship was taken into harbour another fireman was killed. This was through a fall from the coal gantry on to the wharfside. The vessel left Port Kembla with all anxious to see the last of it. A "Jonah" on Board.

The men swore there was a "Jonah" on board causing all the ill-luck. Indeed, they had good reason to feel superstitious about it, lor off the coast of New South Wales tho ship ran into another frightful hurricane, which almost swamped her. She ran this out, but just before Port Pirrie was reached the junkers caught fire and is was only after a week's stay that they were able to proceed. They reached Fremantle safely enough and managed to leave it in the same state, but when 300 miles out one of the cylinders went smash and, although a makeshift job was made of it, they found it a hard business getting back to Fremantle, where during a three week's stay it was put right. When Fremantle had once again been left behind and those on board had thought that ill-luck had left them, they struck more trouble. Four days off Durban a big crack became apparent in one of tho boilers and it was only by running on one that they were able to reach there in safety. Now the Port Augusta has set out on her 6000 miles journey round the Cape and on to England. The crew are still wondering whether they will ever reach their homes.