A LUCKY SHIP.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16609, 5 December 1919, Page 3

A LUCKY SHIP.

STORY OF THE AINSDALE,

The Ainsdale has had a more romantic career than falls to the lot of most vessels. Built at Londonderry as a three-masted sailing ship nearly 30 years ago, she was when war broke out homeward bound with a cargo of guano from the Ballesta Islands. She got the first tidings of war from a passing tramp, and a few days afteri wards she was sighted by a German ; cruiser, winch immediately signalled her to heave to. The master, Captain M'Keown, 'however, called the crew on deck, and suggested that as the weather was favourable, and dusk being at hand, they might make am effort to run for it. There was half | a gale of wind, and the crew' thought ! their chance was good enough, but ! meanwhile the cruiser was getting im- ! patient and repeated her signals, 1 which were ignored, and the captain ■ ran up a signal about not understanding, and all being well on board. It was then nearly dark, and he managed to slip away on another course, to find next morning that the cruiser was. out of sigi;t. Avoiding tho usual sea lanes, tire Ainsdale dodged her way Lome, but it was six months before she got to Liverpool, her own-1 ers having given her up for lost. Anp-! ther interesting episode in her career i occurred on February 15, 1916, when the Ainsdale was making for the Irish Channel in a gale of wind, off Cape Clear. It was 2 p.m., and at nine o’clock that morning she Kad passed an outward-bound steamer, the only vessel she had seen that day. This steamer was torpedoed soon after she passed, and tho submarine, having accounted for her victim, turned round and gave chase to tho Ainsdale, whose first mtimafTon of trouble was a shot which passed through the chart-house. Captain M'Keown at once put the helm over, whilst two more shells smashed up the braces and standing rigging. After burning all the ship’s papers in the galley stove, he got his' crew away in one oi the boats. A gale was blowing, and it was only by good seamanship that everyone got off safely. The submarine continued firing, but all the shots went wide. Evidently tho U-boat got wind of some danger at hand, as instead of hoarding the Oinsdalo/ she disappeared, leaving the boat and crew to the mercy of a February gale, and the Ainsdale to drift away under sail. Seeing this, the captain took a chance of lying off his vessel during the night in tho hopes of picking her up if she were left unmolested next morning; but with such a heavy sea running he lost her, and during the next 13 hours he and his crew gradually became unconscious through cold and exposure. Several died, but the following day' the sudvivors were picked up by the i Ikalis, of Liverpool, and landed _at that port some days later. Meanwhile, for practically a week, the Ainsdale .sailed alone under such canvas as had been set when she was first attacked, to all appearances a ship under control, until the Basuto passed her, some 300 miles west of Capo Cear,' sufficiently close to see she was abandoned. A skeleton crew was put aboard, and eventually the Ainsdale was towed into port, little tho worse for her experience. Thereafter for oyer, a year she sailed the seas in safety/ and then the Admiralty decided that sailing vessels in tho danger zone were asking for trouble. She was then converted into a steamer at tho place of her birth. Her sailing gear was dismantled, her deck-houses were rebuilt and added to, and her original beauty was ruined. In April, 1918, she was on a homeward voyage from Norway in convoy, and, when off the Scotch coast she was obliged to drop out of the convoy owing to temporary engine trouble. She got under weigh soon afterwards, but l a few miles south of the Tyne she i sighted the track of a torpedo on the port beam, beyond which was an unmistakable periscope. The helm was I put hard over, and the torpedo passed j close under her counter. The gun- ' ners had by this time seen the peri- j scooo, and put in a shot which fell ’ short. The second passed over, and j the third exploded with a very fine effect right on the mark, destroying tho submarine. , Captain M’Keown then made for the Tyne, wuttaer he was bound, and reported to mo Admiralty. Shortly after, whilst in com ! voy in the North Sea, a submarine at- j tack occurred, and destroyers being j

present, one of them took the job of hunter, whilst the convy spread out. The Ainsdalo happened to be near tho destroyer when it was chivvying tlie submarine and dropping depth Bombs at intervals, one oE which was put overboard within a hundred feet or so of tho Ainsdale. The homh exploded and came near to shaking her stern off, and so alarmed the crow that some of them made for the boats under the impression that the Germans had at last got the ship. The Ainsdale, however, is still' pursuing the even tenor of her way, and not unnaturally she bears the . reputation of being a very luck* sbis.