BARGE OVERTURNS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26792, 8 June 1948, Page 4

BARGE OVERTURNS

LARGE CARGO OF PETROL ON BOARD ACCIDENT DURING DARKNESS P.A. AUCKLAND, June 7. Carrying 14,000 gallons of petrol in tanks on her deck, the 70ft barge Katie S overturned in rough weather off the Thames coast at 4 o’clock this morning. She was being towed from Auckland to Paeroa by the launch Phyllis when the accident occurred. There was no crew on board the barge. The Katie S. and the launch are owned by the Associated Motorists’ Petrol Company. Ltd., of Auckland, and make weekly voyages to Paeroa with petrol. Built as a wooden ketch 40 years ago. the Katie S. was converted to a petrol carrier during, the war by mounting two 7000-gallon steel tanks on deck. With L. Curtis as skipper of the launch, the two vessels left Auckland for Paeroa on Saturday. Curtis said the bilges were pumped out before they Ifeft Te Kouma Bay, south of Coromandel. at 11.40 p.m. on Sunday. They immediately felt the force of a fresh southerly wind and considerable head sea, and the launch was forced to run at reduced speed. When the vessels were midway between Tapu and Puru and about a mile offshore the accident occurred. “ I could not see how it happened, said Curtis. “It was a pitch blac,* nignt, and the barge was tow 100 yards astern. The barge’s lights were visible one minute and gone the next. When daylight came the crew of the Phvllis could see the upturned hull of the Katie S “like a ballroom floor. The launch’s anchor was made fast to the towline, which-was dropped, and at 5 a.m. the Phyllis left the; pardvsubmerged barge for Auckland. Curtis said he expected the vessel would drift slowly in a northerly direction up the Thames coast towards Coromandel. Warnings were issued by the Marine Department that the barge constituted a danger to navigation. Arrangements will be made by the Associated Motorists’ Petrol Company to salvage the vessel f