CRUISER UNDAMAGED.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 151, 26 June 1907, Page 5

CRUISER UNDAMAGED.

STORY OF THE MISHAP. A MYSTERIOUS ERROR. •(Received 10.47 a.m.) BRISBANE, this day. Lieutenant Hurst, who was on the bridge all night, left at eight this morning to have a bath - The sea was smooth, jand th esun was shining brightly as the j Pyramus approached the C Reef beacon. j The officer of the watch of his own j volition ordered the helmsman to go to ! port, and the beacon was brought on the , starboard bow. The vessel, which was i doing fifteen knots at the time, leapt on Ito a coral reef. There was a terrific grinding and grating below, and as the cruiser's waist took the weight she came to sX\ gradual and helpless standstill. ■She has. so far as can be gathered, sustained no damage. She just ploughed a trough in the coral, and lay there with her bow in the air. Had the Pyramus run on to the rock reef instead of a great mass of rotten coral sand she would have crumpled her bottom like so much eggshell. The examination of the cruiser showed that she was making no water. There was no big shivering shock and no dislocation of anything on board. She simply slid up ,on to the coral ,and stayed there.

The crew took the matter with true naval coolness. Within a couple of minutes of the vessel's striking every man was at his post, the watertight compartments were closed down, and the boats manned with all the precision of clock-work.

The people who were on the Pyramus were not disposed to talk much about the disaster, but there are three outstanding facts—that the Pyramus was two miles off the beaten track of merchantmen, that she had the C Reef beacon half a mile to starboard, when a similar distance on the other bow w-ould have given her deep water, and she actually climbed up in daylight on to the reef "that was only two or three feet under the surface of a very calm sea.