NEW ZEALAND STEAMER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25277, 14 July 1943, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND STEAMER

SURVIVED U-BOAT ATTACK

A HAZARDOUS VOYAGE (Air Mail) SYDNEY, July 6. How the steamer Hororata* (9178 tons), owned by the New Zealand Shipping Company, reached a British port with a cargo of butter and meat after she had been torpedoed off the Azores five months ago was revealed in Sydney this .week. The Hororata left Australia early,this year, and had an uneventful voyage until she was torpedoed in davlight when 200 miles off Flores (Azores). A hole 40 feet in diameter was blown in her port side, and as she listed heavily boxes of butter and sides of beef were washed from the hold into the sea. Captain F. S. Hamilton, who commands the Hororata, headed his ship for Flores, where she arrived in a sinking condition 16 hours after the torpedoing. Repairs could not be made in Flores, and Captain Hamilton decided to make for Horta, 135 miles away. As he suspected that enemy agents in Flores would tell lurking submarines of his ship’s movements, the voyage was made at night. So dangerous was the voyage considered that only essential members of the crew were carried, the rest being left at Flores. , The hole in the side of the ship was temporarily plugged with hatch covers, derricks, and tarpaulins. The Hororata reached Horta safely, only to find that the port, was without facilities to repair the damage. Captain Hamilton sent the crew into the hills to cut logs, which, with old railway lines, were bolted across the hole in the vessel. As bolts could not be obtained in Horta, the ship’s engineers made their own from iron rods.

After three months the patch wa? complete, and more than 390 tons of cement were poured in to ensure strength and make the patch watertight. The Hororata completed her voyage, and arrived safely at a British port with her cargo almost intact.