ORDEAL AT SEA.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 956, 25 October 1910, Page 5

ORDEAL AT SEA.

RUDDEfILESS FOR 1800 MILES,. BATTERED STEAMER., , A TWENTY-FIVE DAYS' BATTLE. (By lelegrapn.—Press A6sociation.) : Christchurch, October 24. The Strathclydc, which was -sighted off ■Lyttelton Heads on Saturday nigkt showing, a. •,"not-under-control" signal, left Newcastle on September 16 for Coronel, Chile, with 6000 tons of coal. The day after she sailed she ran into heavy weather, seas breaking constantly aboard. The vessel passed through Cook Strait on September 22, and next day a southvest gale overtook her, lashing her with hail and- sleet, and sending huge green seas oyer her. The lifeboats were lifted out of the chooks, and the rails damaged. '-. Ship Uncontrollable. Oil was freely used,:but the weather grew worse, and on tho night of September 27 the vessel was hove-to in d: hurricane. Next day the gale moderated, but \vhen tho ship was put oh her course again it was found she would not answer her helm. Examination showed that the rudder-stock was broken right through the trunk. The 6hip was now uncontrollable, and seas. banged tho broken rudder about with great violence. She wont ahead slowly, a big coil of rope being put overboard and towed with a stout cable to steady her, The wind again increased ton hurri-. cane, and oil had to be resorted to. This calmed the waters marvellously, and all hands set to'work rigging a jury rudder. On tho afternoon of Ootober'l the steam-; er shipped an enormous sea, which ripped the tarpanlin from one-, of the hatohes, and stove in a portion of ;tho cover, swept through tho deckhouse, cabins, and storeroom, and tho men frere up to their necks in water. ,; Havoc by the -Sea. • ;So she worked .slowly southwards, but on October 3 the weather was 'so, bad that the stern drag had-to be cut adrift. A big sea sweeping the decks tore the covers,off tho steanipipes and twisted-the ironwork badly, With the objectof trying to head northward, a' jib ■ and .staygall were rigged, but the wind blew'the jib away almost at once. On October-5. the jury rudder wasigot over tho;stern and rigged, but,, as another heavy gale was encountered,, the rudder; had to be abandoned. ' -■ ; ; '. A second rudder was made, and lasted four days, a sea finally smashing it -in. Then the weather moderated, and, with flio assistance." of.'' a > third "jury Irudder tho vessel made some progress..On Friday the ship 'was 43' miles from Cape I'alliser, and on Saturday sheNinadei her way down the coast to Lyttelton.' •" Battered Appearance at Lyttoitcn. • As the steamer lay at Lyttelton-Wharf she was' the centre of, attraction, for' ninny people;,during the'day.;. The big tramp,- deeply laden with; a "full "cargo of coal, showed. many signs of .the rough handling which she had received during j tho 87' days she had been Vt sea.' Her e+oel decks•'. were Ted from end. to- end with rust, which also showed up .'plainly i ip. 'many ; places 'on .'her. .Trhtte-painted bridgo and upper. structure. 1 :,■ 'Beit. rails, twisted stanchions, d«imagod ■ ironwork, torn steam-pipe, covers, and broken ventilaitors, and a big-kedge.anchor,.thrown out., of. its, fastenings .and .now. securely lashed with ropes and, wire hawsers, were all mute\but' eloquent witnesses .'of the terrific /force .of which had swept over-the. vessel. ;■, ' "A Huge Jagged Break.'? , ■; An examination of the, rudder showed, .'more plainly than anything else in the ship, the terrific force of; the seas. ■• The rudder stock,;-or .post, which is of solid steel Olin.-in diameter, "had been snapped., right off with a huge'jagged .bteSk:'as' if it had been merely a; stick! The break was at the top. of the trunk awa,y down through tho vessel's stern, and it was just at ..deck ,levol. .There was & similar break under the counter of" tho steamer just below tho coupling whioh connects. ; the stock with the .bcade of .the ; rudder. Tho ■ violent' ' hammering and bangina about of .the; broken rudder had torn' the half-inch ■ iron >' plate . co-porins the trunk almost to ' pieces, : ' and": had crumpled'it as if it wexo merely-oard-board. The • stuffing-box ; and : packinggland, which had; been bolted down,over the covering-plate, were cracked clean' .'through;-in half, a dozen".-different ways, and the flange round the bottom end of the trunk way, under.the,vessel's counter, was,aliio torn'to; pieces. ;.• :-. ■;,':..' Dauntless Engineers. "' When the break. in : the. stock-was .first discovered the engineers- set to > work and made a coupling from two large pieces_ of heavy angle iron, arid screwed it up with eight ljin. bolts, but these had snapped like carrots. The second; coupling was made from . four pieces, of ■'angle iron, each pair having a'-', four'by' four inch piece of' timber .. between them, -and damped round' the stock with two huge SJin. bolts.: This .coupling.-had held,„but it could not be- clamped far enough "down to hold> the jagged broken.ends of. the stock together.', , X■■;.]."■'.' ,_.;;. : X■' ;- Steering With a Derrick Boom. -Another 'device made by .'. the 'hardworked engineers .was a heavy steel tiller, which it was intended,,to try,. and .bolt to the. rudder blade, and to bo worked by wires, leading to tho winches, in the. event of .the. fourth' jury rudder- being carried away. The jury rudder, which steered the ■■, vessel into ,port,- was: lying on the after-deck. It .consisted, of one. of the big timbei) derricks, , 42ft. . in length, round which a; large number of", pieces of timber had been securely lashed. This rudder,'with its wire towing hawser and: other ; wires ■ for' steering from the winches, weighed between two and three tons. v...... ~.,-.' ; - The Long .Drift. .■!■-.' Tho exact position of tho'.Strathclyde when ■ she broke her rudder was in latitude- 49.20 sonlth, longitude 158.48dcg. west. She had bccnvsteering'on a "great circle course," which took her further . south in order to shorten tho distance, than if she had steered in.a straight lino across to Coronel. The steamer was .' then, roughly, about 1400 ' miles te tho eastward and southward 'of . Lyttdtoh,, but" her driftings in an extraordinary zigzag fashion, whiloVsho was getting back to port, totalled 1806 miles. ■'•.-• . Behaviour of Chinese Crew, The Strathclydo 1 carries; a crow of twenty-fonr Chinese—deck > hands,. firemen, cooks, and her white officers speak well -of their bohaviour. During their twenty-five days' drift, they worked very hard and willingly, and seemed to be more or less indifferent to the dangers which continually beset; them. For several days the Chinamen' slept in, odd corners in the engine-room as,' Owing to the huge seas breaking over tho decks, the risks of getting-forward to the forecastle were too great to bo faced. Captain W. Watt, master of the Strathclyde, cabled to the owners (Messrs, Burrell and Son, of Glasgow) on Sunday, advising them of the vessel's plight, ana is now . awaiting orders from them. Lloyd's surveyor inspected tho vessel yesterday morning, but so far '. nothing has been decided as to' repairing her. Her eargo of coal will have.to bo discharged before she can be docked, and it is possiblo that tho coal may bo sold hero owing to tho difiioulty and ospcnso'of providing storage accommodation for so largo a quantity. ,