THE S.S. TAKAPUNA.

Southland Times, Issue 4896, 24 March 1884, Page 2

THE S.S. TAKAPUNA.

(By Telegraph.) - ;-.u r -WEiiinfGTOK, 1 March 21. The Evening Post pnblishes this evening the following:— "An Explanation is at last forthcoming of tb& extensive but hitherto countable damage which the a.s Takapuna orr bsing docked; at/Port Chalmers was. found to ;; hareVeceiyed. It appears that one night,: eomer '. where about tv.-.o months, ago, as the steamer was coming down from Taranaki to Wellington, and was going at.full speed past.Opnnake, a sudden; and severe*- shock was- experienced, Btrong enough to jerk out of his bed; on to the ciuiu floor a second-cabin passenger who occupied an upper berth. On his inquiring as to the c.iuse of this disagreeable interruption of his night's rest,. r he was led. to believe that the steamers counter had 'been struck by a heavy sea, and as the second-class quarters are right astern, where any motion of the boat is most felt he appeared to have accepted this a3 a feasible explanation. It has leaked our, however, that the concußsion was canaed by the vessel striking on an outlying ledge of the Opunake reefy which- she must have passed right over. She was well down by the stern, and so her fore part woukLpass clear Over the reef, and only the after. part, of her bottom, being .deeper in iue water, came into contact withit, while the ereat speed at f which she was travelling took her right over with a sort of jump, and her double bottom prevented any leakage subsequently. "^lt seems pretty "csr tain that if she had had only a single bottom she probably would have gone down directly after going over the reef, and that with her double bottom, had she been going slow, she would have stuck hard and fast on the reef. It is clear she had an exceedingly narrow escape, and' it is nofc reassuring 'to reflect that she had been running just as "usual since theaecidentin her seriously-damaged condition, without any report being made of the occurrence or any investigation of the extent of the iujaries she had received.". ■ . •• ■ . :