SHIP THAT HIT A TRAMCAR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19347, 30 June 1925, Page 7

SHIP THAT HIT A TRAMCAR

I GROTESQUE MISHAPS TO I VESSELS • : C--5 Gt the most curious collisions on ; r-etvd V'ok. ■nlaes v.t Bristol the other i dsy {3a.ys au F-.igJf.h paper), when a j three-vOVt-vd vdieoner eo’dided with a ; tramc«.r. Ths ;«h p was waiting for a ; rovG.’vjig bridge to open and leave the : way cicar to the dock. Crossing the • bridge was a tramcar, and at the same ; ti’.uu the vessel’s bowsprit projected j over the parapet of the bridge and hit ; the tram with some force, though, i luckily, no one was injured. Mishaps to ships may occur from the : least expected causes. Few landsmen would expect there to be any danger to ships at sea from lightning, but there is every ground to believe that a vessel of eight thousand tons was ac- ! tually destroyed by lightning not long | ago. »She was an oil tanker, and after she i ; had been missed for some time traces ' | cf her were found which left little doubt *>ut that she had been sunk by a terrific : flash of lightning that had killed the crew and set the ship on fire. A terrible experience with lightning befell a schooner in mid-Atlantic some months ago. In the middle of a great thunderstorm a terrific flash of lightning struck tfle ship. The foremast was split into three and fell on to the deck, shortly followed by the other two masts. I By great good luck none of the crew ■ was injured, but when the wreckage ' was cut •away the schooner lay helpless. ’ To make matters worse, the rudder was 1 carried away by a big sea and the ves- ' sei was leaking badly. Eight days of peril followed until the wreck was I sighted by a passing liner, which took the crew off. Volcanic upheavals and earthquakes have often caused disasters to vessels lat anchor in their vicinity. When the volcano of Krakatau erupted and blew itself up, a great tidal wave arose and j carried a Dutch man-of-war two miles . inland, where it was left stranded high ■ and dry. ’ The same eruption played a curious ! trick on a ship at anchor many miles | away. ’The vessel was being painted white, but when the work was finished it was not Avhite, but grey. A lawsuit ! against the painting contractors fol- ! lowed, but it was proved that the dust ■ form Krakatau had got into the paint and so transformed the colour of the i ship. ■ Even on the high seas, a big liner ! was severely shaken by a volcanic dis- • turbance. While in mid-Atlantic, the • vessel vibrated from stem to stern for | thirty seconds. It was feared that the | ship 'had struck sonic submerged derelict, but a further shock followed, ami as a similar experience befell another vesssel seventy miles away, it is certain that the cause was an earthquake on the sea-floor. Whales sometime take it into their heads to attack ships, and are capable of inflicting considerable damage. A barquentine in the Pacific, ■which was rammed by a whale, was so severely damaged that she had to be patched up . and taken back to the harbour for re- ! pairs. The impact was so severe that j the whalo itself was killed. i A transatlantic liner had a curious i collision with a whale not long ago. | Near the American coast a shock was , felt as if the ship had hit some submerged wreckage. When the examination of the hull was made, a thirty-five- ' foot whale was found wedged across ' the stem, six feet below the surface. ; The weight of the ship against the car- ' case had held it in position and as soon as she went astern the dead whale sank immediately. Even the most trifling thing can bring trouble to a vessel. A ship about | to leave a South African port was held up through the machinery for distill--1 ing water failing to work properly. Al- ' though the suction pipes appeared to be j clear, no sea-water for distillation i could be pumped in. i A diver had to be sent down to examI ine the water-inlet, which is under the ■ hull. He found the source of trouble j was a jelly-fish which had spread itself i over the intake and been drawn into i the holes by suction, thus blocking the ' flow of water.

. Had the accident happened at sea, a serious water shortage might have followed. As it was, the ship was delayI ed for a day by just one jelly-fish.