SEA CHEATED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21554, 17 January 1940, Page 5

SEA CHEATED

NINETY MEN SAVED FROM WRECK Because one man happened to have a small electric torch in his pocket. 90 men on board the Kabinda. 5182ton Belgian steamer, were saved from the Goodwin Sands off the coast of Kent. The ship, carrying a general cargo from South America to Antwerp. went aground on the treacherous sands on a Friday after escaping mines and U-boats. Men in the lifeboat that went out to her were knocked down by a wave. But for two days and two nights they stood by her. They saw fifty men from the shore go aboard her to help the crew of forty dump the cargo overboard. AU In Vain They saw that it was all in vain—that the ship failed to move when the Saturday night’s high tide came. Then they heard the pistol-like reports of the ship's iron nuts and bolts giving way Hour alter hour of uncertainty—and then, at 1.30 on the Sunday morning, with the roar of thunder, the ship broke in two. A lifeboatman continues the story: “All her lights went out and everything was dark. For a time all was confusion. The crew and the fifty extra men aboard all became mixed “Luckily some one aboard had a pocket torch, and by its little beam the men managed to grope their way and became bunched together near the bridge. “By skilful manoeuvring the lifeboat was brought sufficiently near to take them off. Forty-three scrambled into the lifeboats and with the lifeboat’s own crew she became so loaded, that in the shallow water she bumped along the bottom. “We fired distress rockets and sent out a call for another lifeboat to come out.’’ Another lifeboat went out and took off the captain and 30 men. The first lifeboat went out again and took the rest off. And so all the 90 men aboard the ill-fated Kabina were saved.