THIRD EDITION COLLISION WITH ICEBERG

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16475, 20 October 1927, Page 11

THIRD EDITION COLLISION WITH ICEBERG

MAMARI’S EXPERIENCE

DR, MOWLEM'S ACCOUNT

'ih.' sinrv of the collision of the s.s. Matnart with an iceberg while near tape .Horn, on August 4 last, is told by Dr. A. liainsi'oiil Mowlem, the ship's surgeon, in a Icl tor to Ins father, -Mr- A. M. .Mow fill, S.M., of .\apior. |)r. .Mowlam writes : Tor the hist 14 days wo had lilt liy weather and saw the sum only twice. Rain and heavy southerly winds wit 1 1 «m *sp«i witc running, during tlu v early part- of tne time. I may add that my interior was a little discontented. hut- fortunately 1 here was no open revolt. Since there was nothing else to do. the greater part of the time was spent m the surgery or asleep. On the 16th day out we passed eight miles to the south of Si ego Kammes, 40 miles south-west of the Horn. The course was set to pass 60 miles to the east of the Tail-Hands and everyone became more cheerful as the days lengthened and became warmer. While we had been within the ice limits between the Chathnms and the Horn the temperature had been ‘iddog. to 53dyg. Believe me. that’s quite bleak enough 100. though we saw no ice at all.

“On I lie 141 It, at noon, we were due east of the Talktnnds, it being warm enough in the afternoon to play quoits on deck though the sea was heavy. At 1.27 a.m. next morning, we were awakened by a grinding crash and lay expecting to hear a big sea come scattering' down the deck as they had been doing off and on during the trip. lUK CALL OF DANGER “Instead I heard eight short blasts followed by a long and three .short- on the whistle- —emergency call and boat stations! (Jin to a change ! “W'e dressed to see small iloo ice all along the port- side, dust oft tile -starboard how was a berg about 250 feet high and four to live miles long. Anyway. hv the time I was on deck we had backed oil and were lying in calm water though there was a biting wind. The boats were swung out but- everyone, was calm and unhurried. ' Soundmus showed lb teet ol 1 water in the fore-peak hut none elsewhere and ivom that time till we made port there was no change in the readings, which were made Im 1 1 -Hourly. I hat speaks volumes tor the coiislructioii of the bo I and of the forward bulkheads, especially when it is remembered that I lie Marmari is 23 years old.

“i in the forecastle head there was alimil ICO tons of ice and it- was impossible to determine the extent of the damage. “Another very curious fact is that within five minutes of our hacking olf the ’berg it- was quite invisible, though it couldn’t have bee'n more than 200 or 500 yards away, if that much. There seemed ‘ to he a haze surrounding it, insufficiently dense itself to show as a fog bank, but thick enough to preclude all possibility of seeing through it. “Judging from the ’berg itself and from the damage sustained, it seems evident- that we ran into a deep ice cave, since the mass was at first overshadowing the masthead, and also since a greater distance lias been crushed in along and below Ihe deck line Ilian along and below the waler-line. There seems to he about 2b feet missing along the deck and about lb feel below the water. SHINS OF THK IMPACT “Tiie -stem itself is smashed through m three places, and is turned starboard and then ait, looking clean backwaids. J’lates are torn everywhere and both anchors are just visible, pushed clean through the hull into Ihe forepeak. In fact, the whole of the poor old boat’s nose is completely ‘concertinaerl.’ and we have been puling half the ocean in front of ns during our trip to port. However, we 1 have been able to say that we have reached a harbor without putting the boats into the water. “After we hacked off the ’berg, carrying with us about 100 tons of ice on the forecastle head (and Jmil the rest of the overhanging mass fallen there would not. have been time even for an S.ILSv or boats, or anything) we lay for at,out three-quarters of an Imiir, and everyone returned to stations. I hen we steamed slowly round m a circle only to find ourselves hemmed in by the ice, so that there was nothing to he done hut wait for daylight. “To complicate matters, the wireless aerial came down about ten minutes alter we struck on account of one of the foremost stays giving way. After effecting necessary repairs, ttie rest- of the day we steamed at- 4 knots through a lug sen, and on the Hollowing morning the Mata - kana came, up at 9.20 to escort us to Bahia Blanca, a place whose existence vyas quite unknown to me. That evening we sighted five more bergs at 4 pan., and altered our course at reduced speed. I don’t quite know how long it took to get here, hut wo steamed 799 miles from the site of Hie accident.”