BATTLE CRUISERS IN COLLISION.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8178, 3 May 1919, Page 4 (Supplement)

BATTLE CRUISERS IN COLLISION.

THE AUSTRALIA - NEW ZEALAND INCIDENT.

Details of the collision which occurred early in 1916 between the battlecruisers Australia and New Zealand were given by Chief Stoker Reg. Stephens, who was a member of the crew and who has just come out to Australia to take up work as Y.M.C.A. representative among the Australian naval men. A big section of the Fleet was out in the North Sea, travelling at high speed. Suddenly a thick fog came down, and some sort of confusion seems to have arisen. How 7 the battle-cruisers Australia and New 7 Zealand came to be going in nearly opposite directions, or who was to blame for the mishap, are things never made clear, but the fact remains that at about 4 p.m. a terrific collision occurred between the two Dominions’ cruisers, the two huge vesse's, travelling at great speed, meeting almost bow on.

The Australia seems to have suffered more. Her bow was stove in, and the whole armour-plate to abaft the bridge was shifted. The hole in her side was forty feet long. Of course, all on the Australia, at any rate, was confusion for a moment, and this was added to by a further accident. As the New 7 Zealand turned away, trying to get clear, her propeller struck tho side of the Australia and ripped a great lio'e in her bottom. The water rushed in, but the bulkheads held, and this did not develop into a disaster. In. accordance with the strictest Admiralty instructions, all the other warships immediately left the wounded Australia. (It had been found that ships congregated round a crippled unit presented an admirable target for submarines). Investigations were made. Chief Stoker Stephens himself examined the hole made in the warship’s bottom, and picked out bits of the New Zealand’s sp’intered propeller, which were later in great demand as souvenirs. Then the Australia set off at reduced speed for Newcastle. If the weather had been rough, or if she had encountered a submarine, that assuredly would have been i lie end of her. As it was, during all that night she slipped quietly through the calm seas, and soon after daybreak reached Newcastle. She was repaired with marvellous speed, and three, weeks later was out again in the North Sea—but a few hours late for the Jutland battle.