BRINGING HOME THE TUG

Waikato Times, Volume 91, Issue 14235, 9 December 1919, Page 7

BRINGING HOME THE TUG

PLUCKY FIGHT OF SEVEN BRITISH SEAMEN. From Sierra Leone pomes a story of Hie pluck of British seamen and the blissful ignorance of those who sit in high places. » The war over, the Government found they had no further use for certain tugboats and lighters which were lying in Dakar and Sierra Leone, and hid now to be returned to their owners In England, Teneriffe, Las Palmas, and St. Vincent. " For this purpose the Government enlisted a crew of ten British officers and men to lake over, in Sierra Leone, a tug which we w'll call Walrus (although that was not her name), a vessel of about 100 tons. 'She was reputed to be nearly new, thoroughly seaworthy, and lit lor towing other vessels over long distances. In this case her task comprised a milage of not less than 12,000. The crew duly arrived at Sierra Leone. Here they were told that their craft was not yd ready for sea. They amused themselves with quinine for two days and then inspected her. They had a nasty shock. The ••seaworthy" lug proved to be a war-worn junk, built in the year One, which had a local reputation for rolling, overheating her bearings, anil breaking down every time she gut up steam. Sinking. For three weeks that crew waited until the fever entered their systems, and hordes of blacks pretended to repair the apology for a tug. Then they went aboard while the ship was si ill liilhy with the reek of her bilges. They had a steam trial. Most <.f Ihe machinery broke down through inability to heave round. Another j week passed during which they carried the mate, second engineer, and a fireman to hospital, had another steam trial, and eventually put to sen ] towing another lug. Only the chief: engineer knows how she was coaxed out of that yellow harbour. | Within forty-two hours they were back again in Sierra Leone, m a sinking condition, boats stove in, bearings seized up, and one engine heaving j round.

As they had to land another fireman with fever, and the ship had no accommodation for a mixed crew, it was decided to send the whites home and ship blacks only, retaining the while captain, mate, and chief engineer. At sea the Walrus behaved like a cow. She made water faster than her crew could bale her out, yet her sponsors still professed lo believe in her seaworthiness, although during her third overhauling about four tons of slush were taken out of her forward bilges alone. Twisted and Torn.

The casualties to the while crew leaving were two •men completely bro- j ken hi'health, two others invalided, an . expenditure upon these seven men in, fares, pay, and maintenance alone of j nearly £IOOO, with nothing whatever i to .-how for it.

After being overhauled by naval en- { gineers in Sierra Leone, the Walrus ultimately reached Dakar —300 miles. distant. She made the trip by God's I mercy, and arrived looking like a ■ cheese-boy on a raft. She had rolled ; gun'l under, so that her boats davits were twisted and torn. Her smoke I stack jutted out of the wreck of gear, crumpled and grimed with the salt of I many seas. Her bridge rails were a I mass of tortured iron. Her foc'sle had

gone by the board, leaving a 'scrapheap of bulkheads and spouting scuppers. She looked wlial she was—a weary, tired-out hulk, wheezing, and groaning her complaints as she waddled over the harbour bar.

In itself a line feat of seamanship. But why were the lives of British seamen imperilled in this old Spanish derelict while there were hundreds of fine trawlers lying idle in England that would have made light of such ■work.