NEARLY ENGULFED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22392, 13 April 1936, Page 9

NEARLY ENGULFED

, FOUR LIVES LOST ' many people hurt panic among passengers STRUGGLE BEEOW DECK AUSTRALIAN STEAMER By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received April 12. 11.45 p.m.) MELBOURNE. April 12 Struck by a huge wave when about to enter Port Phillip Heads this morning, the Tasmanian steamer Nairana, carrying 91 hands and 88 passengers, narrowly escaped disaster. ' Four persons lost their lives and many were injured. The dead are: —

Mr. F- Parsons, of Burnie, Tasmania. / Mrs. F. Parsons. Miss Jean Parsons. Mr. Robert William Gillow, miner, of Tasmania. The vessel was approaching the heads in a calm sea when suddenly a huge wave reared up astern, towered over the ship and threw her on to her beam-ends, the water reaching up to the boat deck. " Thinking the ship was foundering, screaming. ' passengers crowded the passage-ways, struggling to get upstairs. Furniture was thrown about in confusion in the saloons. Firemen and engineers were thrown about the engine-room, some being injured against hot plates. The helmsman was wrenched away from the wheel hut. Captain Mclntyre managed to seize it and hold it until the ship righted herself. After the wave had passed, the Nairana gradually resumed an even keel. When the passengers and crew were mustered it was found that Mr. and Mrs. Parsons and their daughter had v been swept overboard and drowned and that Mr. Gillow had been crushed to death by the weight of the water. The injured people were taken to hospital on arrival in Melbourne.

NEAR DISASTER SHIP HEELS OVER A DANGEROUS ANGLE CAPTAIN'S VIVID STORY (Received April 13. 1.35 a.m.) MELBOURNE, April 12 The master of the Nairana, Captain Mclntyre, in an interview, stated that the vessel left Tasmania for Melbourne on Saturday with 88 passengers, 64 of whom we'rd in the second class. The vovage across Bass Strait was perfectly calm. Many people were at breakfast and some were half-clothed when the ship was lifted bodily in an alarming manner like a cork. The steering wheel became unmanageable and spun through the hands of the helmsman, who lost his balance completely when the ship heeled over violently to starboatd. A wall of water crashed down on the ship, one side of which was submerged to a point 40 feet above the water line. The captain estimated the ship's angle at 55 degrees from the horizontal. Then another great wave swept over the decks and the position looked really serious. However, Captain Mclntyre was greatly comforted when the ship finally righted herself and he saw things around him returning to normal. "The visitation was all so terribly sudden that it took everybody unawares," said the captain. "I never experienced anything like it before. The ship was completely out of control for two minutes. There were 100 tons of cement at the bottom of the ship and had this shifted an inch I fear the Nairana would have gone down." " The crew behaved splendidly,' said a passenger, Mr. Malcolm Wilson, of Ascot Vale. He said he saw a number of injured people and panic-stricken women afid children, who needed attention. These people had no idea what had happened or what their fate was going to be. Some were hysterical and the stewards found difficulty in pacifying them. Nobody missed the Parsons family until about an hour after the occurrence, when the vessel anchored off Queenscliff. Then a roll call revealed their disappearance. Mr. Gillow received shocking injuries, his spine and skull being fractured. The official theory is that the wave which struck the Nairana had its origin in a submarine disturbance.

The Nairana is a twin-screw turbine steamer of 3042 tons, owned by the Tasmanian Steamers Proprietary, Limited. The vessel was built at Dumbarton, Scotland, in 1917, for the Tas-manian-Mclbourne passenger and cargo service. As soon as she was completed, however, the Admiralty commissioned her for war service and fitted her out as a seaplane-carrier. She was stationed later in t the North Sea where she escaped disaster from torpedoes and mines. After the war she was refitted for her original service but she did not reach Melbourne to take lip her running until April, 1921. She is a very speedy vessel and on her trials fihe developed 20i knots.