STEAMER GALE SOLD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 59, 12 March 1935, Page 7

STEAMER GALE SOLD

PURCHASED BY VICTORIANS FREQUENT WANGANUI CALLER. THRILLING INCIDENT RECALLED. Shipping men and others in Wanganui are probably very interested in the news that the Canterbury Steam Shipping Company’s 567-ton coastal steamer Gale has been sold to Victorian purchasers. For the past 14 years the Gale has been a regular trader into Wanganui. Her black hull and black funnel, white bridge and trim appearance have become so familiar as the vessel steamed up the river or lay off the bar waiting for the tide, that it is difficult to realise that in the near future the Gale will leave the Town Wharf for the last time. The steamer has been purchased by the Karoit Steam Navigation Company, and will replace the Coramba which was .wrecked on the Australian coast on November 30. It is not yet known whether the vessel’s name will be changed when she takes up her new running. New Vessel Likely From information gleaned on the waterfront it seems likely the Canterbury Company will purchase a new vessel similar to the motor-ship BreezG, which has proved so satisfactory on the New Zealand coast. The steamer’s agents, when approached by the “Chronicle,” were unable to make any statement; but the general trend of opinion in shipping circles points towards a new ship replacing the Gale. Contrary to expectations, the Gale will make one or two more trips to Wanganui before proceeding to Melbourne. She is at present loading in the South Island and is due here this week. The vessel is a single screw steamer of 567 tons gross tonnage and 287 tons nett. She has a cargo-carrying capacity of from 750 to 800 tons. The length of the Gale is 167 ft., depth lift, and beam 26ft. 6in. Her port of registry is Lyttelton. An outstanding incident in the vessel’s career happened only a few miles south of Wanganui in 1928. The story was the talk of the waterfront for many weeks and the Gale’s plight on a dangerous lee shore gave the Wanganui Harbour Board’s steam salvage tug Kahanui, then new to the port and not long out from England, a stern baptism in the hands of a raging sea. Gale Damages Propellor While entering port on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 18, 1928, the Gale was caught by the strong sea that was running at the time and her stern was forced against one of the moles at the harbour entrance. Two blades of her propellor were broken and the third badly bent, so much so that the vessel was disabled and unable to proceed under her own steam. Her owners decided to have her towed to Wellington and for this purpose the Union Steam Ship Company’s tug Terawhiti came to Wanganui. On the Friday morning following the coaster’s mishap the tow began and with the Gale astern the Terawhiti cleared Wanganui for Wellington. Some three hours later, however, the tow-line parted and the Gale drew away from her consort. Heavy weather camo up from the north-west and the disabled coaster drifting helplessly towards the breakers. Later, the weather cleared and that afternoon the Gale was observed from Castlecliff, some six or seven miles south of the bar and anchored a couple of miles off the coast. The Terawhiti was standing out to sea. Later that evening, however, wind and sen rose again and a fierce gale blew up from the north west. It was then decided to send the Wanganui tug Kahanui to aid the derelict steamer. What happened after the staunch little Kahanui cleared the Wanganui bar on. her first errand of mercy as a salvage tug is too long a story for repetition here; but her towing of the Gale to safety was one of the most thrilling dramas of the sea that have been enacted on the New Zealand coast. Rescued at Dawn When the first light of a ragged autumn dawn filtered through a stormwracked sky, th© Gale was within half a mile of the breakers. Her anchors were dragging and her damaged propellor thrashing the seas in. an effort to keep her off the beach. With her low docks constantly awash and her twin screws churning the boiling surf, the Kahanui steamed close enough for a line to be passed and after the second unsuccessful attempt to accomplish an almost impossible task, the Gale was slowly but surely drawn from what would have been certain disaster. It was a thrilling and a splendid feat of seamanship on the part of the late Captain P. Mclntyre, then harbourmaster at Wanganui. Also on the tug at the time were Captaih Johnson, who is still with the Harbour Board at Castlecliff, Captain Symons, and about a dozen members of the Harbour Board staff. Some 18 hours later the Kahanui was approaching Pencarrow, at the entrance to Port Nicholson. Astern of a long, dripping tow-line wallowed the Gale, empty of cargo and exposing a big surface to the wind and sea. The skill and daring of the Kahunui’s crew had been rewarded and a difficult salvage safely accomplished. In passing, a tribute to those men who spent an anxious night on the drifting coaster is only fitting. With that stoic calm in the face of danger that is so typical of the British merchantman, they did everything possible to help the Kahunui and it was also due to their efforts that the rescue was carried out. A few weeks later the Gale had resumed her running on the coast, none the worse for her buffeting and capable of the service s'he has maintained ever since.