VIOLENT TYPHOONS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18900, 30 December 1935, Page 8

VIOLENT TYPHOONS

SWEEP BRITISH STEAMER TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE SYDNEY, Dec. 12. Lashed by two violent typhoons, •which swept the upper part of the •bridge and carried away the sundeck ami the lifeboats, wrecked the crew’s quarters, and flooded tho holds, 'the British steamer Ovington Court, which arrived in Sydney yesterday morning from Japan, had an adventurous voyage recently from Whyalla to Moji. The terrific battering she received necessitated repairs in Japan that lasted for two months. The chief engineer, Mr G. H. Rustic, recounting the frightful experience, said that every member of the crew was lucky to be alive. The wireless was carried away, making an SOS call impossible. “It was a thoroughly nasty time,” said Mr Ilastie.* “Down below we .struggled, through for 40 hours at a

stretch. We were fighting for our lives, and it seemed to be against incredible odds. When the hatches were carried away water poured down into the engine-room. There was Gft. of water in the engine-room and 4ft. in the stokehold. The bilges filled up, and then the pumps would not function. The water washed through the bunkers into the engine-room. On one occasion a terrified donkeyman was carried from the stokehold into the engine-room on top of a pile of coat. He screamed to me that the ship’s side had come in. “The coal dust and sea water got into the bearings. Fortunately we managed to keep the fires going, or we might never have struggled through. It was a case of working by the light of a flickering, guttering hurricane lamp, in swirling water, not knowing what was going on on deck. Occasionally there would be a deafening ’crash as something was carried over the side, probably followed by a rush or water down into the engine-room. The men responded magnificently, and ’worked incessantly to repair tho damage and ensure that the engines did not fail. We were lucky to pull through’. ” For days the stricken vessel was

exposed to the fury of the typhoons. Huge sens swept her from stem to stern. The lighting system failed, and men worked-at repairs in the dark or by the light of lanterns. The Ovington Court left Whyalla in August last for Moji, heavily laden with a freight of iron ore. About a month later, while off Gaum, she struck the first typhoon., Mountainous seas ,swept her. Every seaman lost all he possessed. The steering quadrant was buckled, the hull was fractured in nine places by tho terrific force of the waves. The cook’s galley was swept overboard, with most of the cooking utensils. It was, impossible to prepare meals for the well-nigh exhausted crew. Throughout the two days that the first typhoon lasted they subsisted on bread and water, which was varied occasionally by hot coffee and tea. All ladders and gangways disappeared. Salt encrusted the highest peak of the masts, which were invisible during the storm.

A few days later the recurring typhoon was met, and for days the vessel battled again through tempestuous seas. Visibility during the day was totally obscured by blinding rain. Wind gauges indicated the maximum velocity possible, and then refused to function. For a day after the second typhoon the Ovington Court steamed at two knots only. An entire overhaul was needed when the Ovington Court reached Moji.