DRIFTING HELPLESS

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12455, 25 May 1926, Page 7

DRIFTING HELPLESS

WONGANELLA’S CLOSE CALL PROPELLER SHAFT SNAPPED Bv Telegraph.—Prr.su A^sn. —Copyright. BRISBANE, May 24. The Wongonella has arrived in tow of a tug. With her arrival a graphic story is told of her rescue by the tug St. Giles. Two dnyß out from Newcastle, bound for Ocean Island, the Wcyhganolla ran into dirty weather when about IGO miles east of Sandy Cape, and two hours before dawn the propeller shaft snapped in the tube. The ship lay helpless. By noon the wind increased to a moderate gale in force. The ship rolled heavily, and drifted closer and closer to the Queensland const at the rate of three miles an hour. On Sunday morning the tempest increased in fury, and the vessel rolled alarmingly at times in the seas, some of which were 40 feet high. At 3.26 p.m., with Sandy Cape only 30 miles away, the S.Q.S. was sent out. The steamer Queda arrived at midnight. With sueh a sea running the task of getting a line aboard was impossible in the darkness. At daylight the Queda was preparing to put a line aboard the Wonganella. when she was advised by the latter that her owners were sending a tug, and, as tho wind line! changed, blowing offshore, she did not need a tow by the Queda. The Queda then resumed her voyage, but as the weather again became stormy she returned and stood by till tho tug arrived. The tug crew state that on the journey out they were continually awash, engulfed by imnmtainous sens. Nobody a hoard had much sleep for three days. She finally arrived at the Wonganella and got a line aboard with difficulty. Five hours later it snapped, and they had to wait till mprning, when another lipe was put aboard. That night the line again parted, but communication was restored the following morning, tho weather improved, and the vessels successfully made Brisbane.