HISTORIC WARSHIP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22516, 5 September 1936, Page 16

HISTORIC WARSHIP

RELIC FOR MTISETJM CALLIOPE'S STEERING WHEEL ARRIVAL BY H.M.S. ACHILLES One of the steering wheels of H.M.S. Calliope, which is being presented to the Auckland War Memorial Museum us tlio result of representations made by the Mayor, Mr. Ernest Davis, to the Admiralty, is being brought to New Zealand by H.M.S. Achilles, which is due at Auckland to-morrow morning. The Mayor applied for the donation of the service bell and one of the steering wheels of H.M.S. Calliope and to•\viird the end of last year received advice from the High Commissioner for New Zealand, Sir James Parr, that the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty had approved the presentation to the museum of one of the steering wheels. There was no service bell on board the ship. The old warship is lying at Elswiek, near Newcastle, and before being placed on board H.M.S. Achilles the old wheel was overhauled at Shields. The Calliope's name is associated with the disastrous hurricane which occurred in Apia Bay, Western Samoa, on March 16, 18S9. Six warships were destroyed and 150 men lost their lives. The Calliope, the boilers of which were fuelled with Westport coal, was the only vessel of all those in the bay to reach the open sea and ride out the storm. The British warship put out anchors when the gale sprang up, but was rammed by the German gunboat Olga, and then damaged in a collision with the Vandalia, a United States warship. By this time the Calliope had snapped two of her cables and there was nothing to do, in the face of the hurricane, but to make for the open sea through the narrow entrance in the reef, lo leave tho harbour the Calliope had to pass the United States man-of-war Trenton, which was practically blocking tho centre of the fairway, where she was straining on four anchors. The two vessels passed with only a few feet to spare and the American sailors cheered tho British as the Calliope ploughed her way into the storm and tho comparative safety of the open sea. Arrangements will be made for a suitable ceremony for the handing over of tho wheel to the museum.