STEAMERS IN COLLISION.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17839, 11 October 1929, Page 9

STEAMERS IN COLLISION.

IN SYDNEY HARBOUR. PASSENGERS TERROR-STRICKEN. The hahbour ferry Koree almost capsized when the Kuramia collided with it under the bridge at Dawes Point, says a Sydney paper. Both boats were on the McMahon’s Point-Lavender Bay run. No one was injured, but the bulwarks of the Koree were stove in by the bow of the Kuramia. , The Koree left McMahon's Point at about a. 23 p.m., with half a load of passengers aboard. As it rounded Dawes Point, the Kuramia, coming from the Quay, loomed suddenly around the bend, and the collision seemed unavoidable. Women screamed and rushed to the l'ar side of the boat, and one young woman, with a baby in her arms, dashed up and down the deck of the Koree, screaming, “We’ll be killed! We'll all be dead!” The passengers waited in awful suspense for the crakh, and the skipper of the Kuramia, It is said, vainly tried to avoid the collision. The bow of the Kuramia hit the Koree amidships, smashed in the buhvarks, and glanced along the length of the vessel. Looked Like Capsizing.

The Koree heeled over until the far side bulwarks almost touched the water, and the passengers, for a few awful moments, thought the vessel would capsize. Some of the women burst Into tears, and men prepared to leap from the vessel. She righted herself, however, and the engines were stopped until the crew made sure no one w r as injured. Then she carried the passengers to the Quay, and was laid off. It was stated by officials of the Sydney Ferries that the Kuramia was undamaged and continued on Its run. Half the buhvarks on one side of the Koree were smashed to matchwood. Master Astill, a passenger on the Koree, said that the passengers on both vessels had some terrible j moments of suspense when they saw j that the crash was inevitable, and , when the Koree heeled over. “The I screeches of the women were the I worst part of It, he said. . {