SYDNEY HARBOUR COLLISION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24254, 23 March 1940, Page 15

SYDNEY HARBOUR COLLISION

UNION SHIP BADLY DAMAGED . ——■ —— v NOW STRADDLING A MUDBANK AUCKLAND GREASER. KILLED (From Our Own Correspondent? SDYNEY, Mar. 13. When an 11,000-ton Blue Star motorship and a'2Boo-ton Union' company freighter collided in Sydney Harbour late at night, the smaller vessel was so badly damaged that she had to be beached to prevent her sinking. J. Sharz, a greaser who lived in Auckland, was asleep in the forecastle when the collision occurred,' and is believed to have been killed. His. body has not yet been found. The bunk on which Sharz was sleeping was cut in half, and bloods'«ains in the cabin supported the supposition that Sharz was killed instantly. It is thought that his body is trapped among the debris in the forepeak. The vessels collided slightly to the west of the harbour bridge, off Dawes Point, when the Union ship w-as manoeuvring to. her berth and the Blue Star ship was going seaward. The bows of the Union freighter were, driven back by the head-on collision, and the right side of the ship was crumpled into a great hollow. The bows of the larger vessel then tore across the front, ripping thick plates as if they were paper and stripping off about 30 feet of the port side. The whole of the forward hold was bared and water poured ■ in. The seamen's cabins had their, outer walls torn away. Several men standing near. the. bows of. the Union freighter and two in the forecastle had extraordinary escapes, those on deck running back in time to avoid the cutting bows of the' larger ship. When the ships drew apart, the badly-damaged freighter was filling with water. Two tugs took her in tow. She was rapidly sinking as they approached Goat Island. The tugs were unable to beach her close to the island, but got her to a mudbank in sufficiently shallow water to keep the upper decks clear when the ship settled down. • •

Since the collision the freighter has been in about 40 feet of water at the mouth of busy Walsh Bay, straddling the mudbank, which is abouf 100 yards from Goat Island. The, bow is well down in the water, and the ship is held fast in the mud by the tangled mass of wreckage torn off in the collision. The whole of the forepeak is flooded, and boats can be rowed through the gaping opening into the interior of the vessel up to the bulkhead of the forward hold. Against this bulkhead there is tremendous pressure, and there is constant danger that it will give way.

The vessel had loaded about 3000 tons of coal and : steel at Newcastle and Port Kembla for New Zealand, and was going to a harbour berth to finish loading when the collision occurred. Most of the cargo was unloaded on to lighters to provide greater buoyancy. With hundreds of tons of water weighing down the bow, however, there isthe continuous danger that too much buoyancy may prove disastrous and break trie ship.

After a substantial amount of steel had been unloaded,' efforts by tugs-to haul the ship clear failed. .Tow-lines broke, uad the vessel seemed securely anchored by its own wreckage embedded in mud.

The Blue Star motorship suffered little visible damage from the collision, and she went to a harbour berth. Some repairs were made to the bow. • "I was on the end of a Walsh Bay wharf and saw them as soon as they crashed," said James Taylor, a nightwatchman. "The first evidence that anything was wrong was a frantic hooting of sirens. Then came an earsplitting crash, with sparks flying as steel smacked steel. They were locked together for a few seconds, and when tb_ev came apart. I could seen the bows of the smaller ship in a terriblemess." . . ;.-.-...■ Two greasers on the Union freighter were off watch and in the forward sec-"., tion of the forecastle with Sharz, but on the starboard side, which was. not so badlv battered as the port. One was asleep, the other dozing off. They were hurled into a heap and halfsmothered by pieces of timber. The plates round them were bent out of shape, sky and stars showed above; them, and their bunks were wrecked. They scrambled out on deck, but, as they said, "darned lucky to be alive."