OLYMPIC DAMAGED

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1239, 22 September 1911, Page 5

OLYMPIC DAMAGED

MONSTER LINER IN COLLISION. WARSHIP TEARS HUGE GAP IN HER SIDE. TERRIFIC IMPACT. By Telegraph—Press Association—Oouyrleht (liec. September 21, 5.5 p.m.) London, September 20. The monster J5,000-ton White Star Liner Olympic, tho largest vessel in the world, has been, seriously damaged in collision. While tho Olympic was passing Cowes, outward-bound from Southampton for Cherbourg and New York, with 3000 passengers aboard, including 732 in the first class, among whom were a dozen millionaires, the second-class cruiser. Hawko (7500 tons) overtook her in drizzling rain. After steaming alongside tho Hawke slotted down to pass astern, but was apparently drawn by tho suction and crashed into the Olympic's starboard quarter. There was: no panic, and the collision doors wero promptly closed. The cruiser returned to Portsmouth with her fore compartments filled with water. The Olympic returned slowly to Southampton, with her plates badly buckled aud a huge gap in her side. She has a distinct list. The impact of the collision was terrific, and a sound like the report of a heavy gun was heard a mile away. Forty feet of tho Olympic's plates were torn, tho crniser's stern penetrating the second-class cabins. The Hawko looked like turning turtle, but quickly righted. Her stern was smashed from the waterlino back to the hawser holes. The suddenness with which the cruiser changed her course suggests that her steering gear was at fault.