TOSSED LIKE CORK

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 21062, 14 June 1938, Page 9

TOSSED LIKE CORK

Steamer In Light Trim Hold Flooded to Make Her Manageable By Telegraph—Press Association AUCKLAND, June 13. At the mercy of the mountainous seas off Cape Reinga, at the extreme north of New Zealand, the British steamer Llangollen narrowly escaped disaster on the rocky coast at dusk on Saturday. She was only brought under control after a hold had been deliberately flooded. The Llangollen, with her bunkers, depleted, put back to Auckland, where she arrived early last evening. “For n . an hour the vessel took charge of herself,” said Captain David Williams to an interviewer. He added that her light trim made the vessel uni .anageable. After broaching off twice she put about and ran to shelter. She survived a severe buffeting without structural damage, and none of her company was injured.. The Llangollen left Auckland on Friday morning after discharging sugar from Sourabaya en route to Port Kembla to bunker before loading for Europe. She made a fair passage to the North Cape, but after rounding the Cape huge seas and westerly winds of gale force were encountered. Sb n was drawing only about 12 feet by the stern and nine feet by the head. An officer said the light trim made the vessel like a butter box in a storm. She was spun off her course, tl • crew were flung about, and the officers on the bridge had difficulty in keeping their footing. An officer off watch was struck by falling furniture in a cabin and splashed with the contents of an ink bottle. Officers, crew, and stewards worked together in preparing to flood the hold as a desperate attempt to give me racing screw a grip on the water. The manoeuvre was successful, but the captain ib en doubted whether the coal supply would allow a safe margin for the Tasman crossing. The captain paid a tribute to the officers engineers and crew. The Llangollen, which is still anchored in mid-harbour, will b~ '.h at Queen’s Wharf, load coal and will probably sail to-morrow morning.