ACCIDENT TO THE S.S. TAKAPUNA.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1322, 22 March 1884, Page 3

ACCIDENT TO THE S.S. TAKAPUNA.

(Br TELEGRAPH.) Wellington, March 21. The Evening Post publishes this evening I tho following:—"An explanation is at last ' forthcoming of the extensive, but hitherto I unnaccountable, damage which the s.s. Takapuna on being docked at Port ! Chalmers was found to have received. - It | appears that one night, somewhere about two months 820, as the steamer was coining down from Taranaki to Wellington, and was going at full speed past Opunake, a sndden and severe shock was experiencid, strong enough to jerk out of hia bed, on to the cabin floor, a second cabin passengers who occupied an upper berth. On his enquiring as to the cause of this disagreeable interruption of his night's rest, he was led to believe that the 3teamer's counter had been struck by a heavy sea, and a3 the second-class quarters aro right astern, where any motion of the beat is most felt, ho appeared to havo accepted thi3 as a feasible explanation. It has leaked out, however, that the concussion was caused by the vessel striking on an out-lying ledge of the Opunake reef, which she must have passed right over. She wa3 well down by the stern, and so her forepart would pass clear over the reef, and only the after part of her bottom, being deeper in the water, came in contact, while the great speed at which she was travelling, took her right over with a sort of jump, and her double bottom prevented any material leakage. Subsequently, it seems pretty certain that if she had had only a single bottom, sho would probably havo gone down directly after getting over the reef, and that, with her double bottom, had she been going slow she would have stuck hard and fast on the reef. It is clear she had an exceedingly narrow escape, and it is not reassuring to reflect that she has been running just as usual, since tho accident, in her seriously damaged condition without any report being made of the occurrence, or any investigation of tho extent of the injuries she had received."