Cars On Wanganella Severely Damaged

Press, Volume C, Issue 29510, 11 May 1961, Page 16

Cars On Wanganella Severely Damaged

(N.Z. Praa WELLINGTON, May 10. So vicious was the storm the Wanganella met on her last Tasman crossing that the captain did not leave the bridge for three days and nights. * The ship left Sydney on Friday and the storm'hit as she cleared the heads. It continued unabated till Monday. In that time several portholes in the crew's quarters were broken and sections of the forward bulwarks were stove in. J a Damage which the master, Captain W, H. Utley, estimates at several hundred pounds was caused to 10 of the 48 cars aboard when they broke free from their lashings. Captain Utley said the storm was the worst he had encountered since March, 1959, when the Wanganella and the Tofua suffered damage off Auckland.

The storm reached its peak on the Saturday night and the ship was hove to for 12 hours. On the Sunday the weather had improved sufficiently for the vessel to resume her voyage. Cargo apart from the cars was undamaged. One of the passengers, Mr A. J. Fordyce, of Brisbane, said that his car, one of the 10 damaged, was “almost a write off.” The front was badly stove in. the engine pushed back, the tail shaft torn out of the gear box and the body work badly crushed.

His car was reasonably well tied, said Mr Fordyce, but he wondered whether it was good practice to stow cars at right angles to the length of the ship. Most of the worst damage was inflicted on cars in this position, he said. On the voyage Mr and Mrs T. Hegarty, of Napier, learnt the car which they had saved up for three years to buy on a working holiday in Australia was a write-off Mrs Hegarty broke down and cried at dinner when she was told the news. She said the vehicle was insured for £lOO only, the maximum she said allowed for the trip —but was valued at £B5O. She said that at the height of the storm women passengers took straps from their suitcases and strapped themselves to the bunks to avoid being tossed on to the floor. 15 Hours Late The 70-miles-an-hour hurricane was described by some members of the crew as the worst they have experienced in 50 years at sea. After arriving at Wellington at 10 p.m. yesterday—more than 15 hours late—she berthed early this morning. Huge waves smashed in bulwarks, lifting up cars on the forward hatch and flinging them bodily against the opposite side and pouring down ventilators to flood members of the crew from their quarters. A piano was turned upside down In the smoke room and saloon tables and chairs were wrenched from their fittings on the bulkhead.

The galley and storeroom ■were a shambles with milk, meat and other food swishing from side to side.

More than 10 cars stored below in the forward hatch and roped securely before leaving Sydney were wrenched from their positions and flung bodily against one another, grinding their sides continually with the force of the waves.

No passengers were injured and the stock, consisting of several horses and sheep, remained unperturbed.

After Heads

Captain Utley said rough weather was encountered soon after the ship cleared the heads at Sydney with the wind blowing hard from the south-west. As the ship moved further into the Tasman the weather deteriorated and the wind rose to hurricane force.

Soon after midnight on Friday, the waves were coming over the forecastle and down

into the forward well deck over two expensive cars. At 6.20 a.m. on Saturday a huge wave came over the port side and broke just as it hit the bulwarks, bending them in for a distance of

some 15ft like cardboard. Members of the crew asleep found a wall of water coming at them and had to vacate their bunks immediately. Several lost all their possessions. Passengers this morning had little to say about the trip, but there were many looks of relief when they stepped ashore. Some had their cabins flooded and most suffered at some stage from seasickness.

Everyone, including members of the crew, had the utmost praise for the ship. “In the circumstances, she behaved extra well,” one steward said, "and nobody feared the worst.”