SALVING THE SUEVIC.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13293, 23 May 1907, Page 7

SALVING THE SUEVIC.

A REMARKABLE FEAT.

The salving of the major portion of the Atlantic liner Suevic from the StagRocks. at the Lizard, was succesffully effected on April 2nd, and leaving lß4ft. of her bow end on the rock, the remainder was propelled by the steamer s engines to Devonport dockyard. The stranding of the steamer had furnished some exciting incidents in the rescue of tli:. passengers by hauling them up »■ cliff. The vessel was fixed fast by her bow on the rocks and it was -determined to cut her in two by firing charges of dynamite along a selected line down the sides and across the bottom. Watertight bulk-heads kept dry the major portion of the vessel, including the engine rooms. '1 he task of saving ,the vessel was undertaken by the Liverpool Salvage Association, and the divers did their -\\ork excellently. It was a very difficult task. They had to conduct all their operations from the outside of the ship, as they were unable to get at the work from the inside.

The divers were frequently washed somedistance awav from the vessel and badly bruised and cut by. being dashed againstthe pinnacled rocks, amongst which the liner was lying. During the severing operations debris was sometimes hurled by the explosives on to the clifis 1,200 yards away, and it is therefore very fortunate 'that under the circumstances only one slight mishap occurred, one of the salvage men being knocked down by a flying bolt. Each charge -was set and fired separately, the .ship's syren giving notice of each discharge. The bottom was first broken in this way, then the sides, and the steel deck was the last to be ripped across, and a big sea, by lifting up the stern of the vessel on . the . tide, saved some dynamite. Two big tugs had been made fast to the stern; -these were ordered to go ahead ;? there - was a gradual and perceptible widening in' the crevice between two parts of the liner, and the salved portion, moved 'slowly away. There had been some anxiety as; to how the released part of the hull would behave when freed, but she floated away on an even. keel. When the vessel parted there was no perceptible movement of the fore part, impaled on the rocks. It is not expected that the remaining portion will long withstand the buffeting of the seas. The problem as to what was to become of the vast quantity of decomposed carcases of sheep caused much concern to the health authorities, as those washed in along the coastline constituted a.- serious menace to health. The medical officers of health vetoed the suggestion thitt the sea should be allowed to dispose of the carcases, and insisted that they should be taken ashore and buried or cremated.

As the Lizard is becoming increasingly popular a.« a health resort, and there were visitors there, much concern was shown on account of the stench emitted from thousands of decomposed carcases of sheep on the .Suevic and from cases of putrid rabbits- floating about, and lying on the shore. So serious had ■,matters become that the beach.was generally avoided ancl men demanded £2 a clay to assist in the work of removing carcases. After assuring himself of the gravity of the situation, Mr Morgan, M.P., promised to endeavour to secure officiel pressure from a Government department to compel the steamship company ta abate nuisance.

The Lizard has been notorious for the tenacious hold it has. had both on wrecks of humanity and ships. Tn remote times the peninsula was a settlement, for lepers, and these, human wrecks came from, all parts of the kingdom. The place was called Lezarus, meaning leper, and hence the modern derivation Lizard.

Its rocky shores have proved the grave of many, a noble ship, and one, Sir John ,'tvilligrew, being moved by the vast loss of mariners' lives, instituted a fire on the headland as a warning beacon—a l.ea.- .-n which is now replaced by the magnificent lighthouse, whose revolving electric b;am has been seen seventy miles at sea.

Still vessels come to grief on the Lizard rock.s. Lizard folk are never tired of telling the s.orv of two vessels, laden with rice, which life Bermuda at the same time. They never sighted one another during the whole voyage, yet within half an hour of each other they were both on the Stag rocks, and within another couple of hour.; they had been crunched to pieces; and nothing remained of them but flo itiag wreckage. During a. dense fog off the Lizard a fsw evenings before the salvage was effected, a liner proceeding east had a harrow escape of running into the wrecked Suevic. Shs approached within fifty yards, find only the sounding' of the syrens of the -Suevic,' arid the accompanying salvage ,boats avert «I n catastrophe. The sudden appearance of thn passing liner created consternation among the crews of the waiting tug-boa,?, and all Agree that it was a close shave ,