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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4134, 20 June 1874, Page 2

The fact that at one of the piers in Hobson’s Bay there are lying at this moment, throe fine iron clipper ships dismasted on their voyage from England, and that one of them occupies a berth only vacated a few weeks ago by another vessel that had experienced a similar mishap, must draw attention to the primary causes of such disasters. It was at first supposed that two of the three vessels must have been pressing on under too much canvas at the time, as they were known to bo racing for the reputation of their respective builders ; but that proves not to have been the case. The mischances of the Loch Ard and John Kerr occurred on the same day, and apparently in the same gale, for the ships were not a great way from each other; but the former was under storm canvas, and the latter was lying-to. The Cambridgeshire was not racing, but making her way comfortably down the easting ; and the Dallam Tower, when she was totally dismasted, was running before a gale of wind under easy sail, and would not have been reduced to the utterly crippled state in which she reached port had the iron-work of her rigging been sound. Various conjectures have boenhazarded. An old retired shipmaster gives it as his opinion, in the columns of one of the Melbourne morning journals, that something may be due to the effect of the change of climate on the iron-work of the masts and rigging. Australian-bound ships, of course, pass through the hot latitudes, and, if they are favored with strong winds, soon afterwards find themselves in the region of strong westerly winds, with wet weather; and if they go far to the south they get into latitudes where icy breezes prevail, with frost and snow, and seamen, from the manner in which they are compelled to wrap themselves become—as a well-known master in the trade used to describe them—more balls of oakum. It is possible enough that the greatness of the change, the heat expanding and the cold contracting the iron, may have a material effect on ships having iron masts and yards and iron rigging. It is known that these variations of temperature, and even the thumping of the sea on the sides of a vessel, have a most important effect on the magnetioal condition of a ship, requiring great care on the part of the officers. This, however, could not have caused the accidents just referred to, because not one of the four ships named had gone so far south as to meet with ice or snow. The Loch Ard was dismasted in 44deg., and the John Kerr in 45deg. south, and it was almost in the same parallels that the Cambridgeshire and the Dallam Tower were similarly visited. It is between 42deg. and 45deg. that almost all the vessels coming eastward make their course. That is, in fact, the “ ship lane ” of the Southern Indian Ocean, and if the change of temperature was the cause of those accidents, dismasting of vessels would have been still more frequent than it has been. Moreover, the Loch Ard had been dismasted soon after she left the Clyde, on her first set out, and therefore, before she had passed into a region of ice. A second conjecture is, that the slacking or straining of the rigging and stays, and the fact that no play is permitted to the masts, as they are wedged tight to the decks, throws an enormous strain in heavy weather on the lower masts, which break short off above the deck, in consequence of the enormous loverago of the upper masts and yards. There is some force in this conjecture. Tho lower masts of a ship when made of iron are merely long hollow tubes, not thicker in their lower than in their upper parts. All is well so long as tho stays and rigging are taut, for tho lower masts are then strengthened by them, and do not feel the strain of the top and topgallant masts with their yards, though the use of double topgallant yards must increase tho strain. When iron masts and rigging were first introduced, it was a serious fear, with eld salts, that if ever a ship so fitted wore thrown on her beam-ends, there was nothing for it but resignation to a trip to Fiddlers’ Green, because it would be impossible to cut away tho spars to save tho ship. This, however, proved to bo an unfounded fear. The latest, and perhaps tho only, instance in which a powerful iron clipper ship was in a position of such peril in Australasian waters, was that of tho Underly, a sister ship to tho Dallam Tower. She was proceeding from Melbourne to Calcutta with horses, and soon after leaving port encountered a heavy westerly gale. When not far from Capo Otway her ballast shifted, tho vessel was thrown on her beam-ends, and to save life it was necessary to cut away her masts. A few chops at tho shrouds were sufficient, tho three masts wont almost literally by tho board, breaking clean off about throe feet above tiro dock. Thoro is no doubt that iron masts have a tendency to give way close by tho deck when

the shrouds have strained; and it is possible that this might be remedied by the simple means of giving the masts more play, an experiment which there would seem to be little danger in trying. There is another, however, and more common cause of accident to the spars of iron ships—the use of cheap and inferior material in rigging and staying. Instances have occurred in which cross-trees made of common white iron, have given way under the feet of the seamen; and more than one ship has found her way into Hobson’s Bay during the last few years, the material used in the upper rigging and sparring of which was positively dangerous. The experience of most of the ships that have come in dismasted, or with serious injury to masts, has been the same. The mischief usually begins with the giving way of a fore or mainroyal or topgallant mast. This brings down with it more or less wreck. The whole superstructure is thus at once placed in imminent danger, and accident after accident occurs, until, in the rolling of the disabled ship and the swaying and surging of the broken or displaced spars, the deck is cleared by the whole mass of spars and sails going over the side, smashing bulwarks, destroying boats, and leaving the vessel an all but helpless wreck, such as the Dallam Tower was. Great care is taken in superiiitending the construction of the hulls of iron vessels. So much so, that after serious misadventures of this kind the only damage the cargo usually sustains is from the water passing down through holes in the deck made by the falling masts and yards. But the rigging is not so carefully looked after. Cheap gear goes aloft, and in duo time its weakness is found out by the heavy gales which occasionally sweep the waters, and serious loss of property and danger to, if not loss of, life also occurs. But this cause of disaster is so easily remedied that the experience of the Loch Ard, the John Kerr, the Cambridgeshire, and the Dallam Tower will probably lead to greater care in this respect, in those yards at least from which the ' ships in question wore launched. Their experience, however, adds one more to the many proofs that have presented themselves of late of the necessity of still greater care in the inspection, while still in the builder’s hands, of those fine ships which it is now the custom at Lloyd’s to class at a very high figure. So many disasters, indeed, have occurred of late to iron steamships and sailing vessels of the highest class, and supposed to be in the most perfect condition, that it would be well if an Imperial commission wore issued for a thorough and scientific investigation of the whole subject of iron shipbuilding in all its branches.