AMIDST THE FOG.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1763, 30 May 1913, Page 5

AMIDST THE FOG.

THE TAINUI COLLISION.

PASSENGERS TELL THE STORY,

GARTH,CASTLE'S ANXIOUS HIE.

By TfllceraDli—Press Association— OopyrisM (Rec. May 29, 10.30 p.m.) London, May 29. The Union Castle liner Garth Oastie, to which tho Tainui's passengers were imusferred after tho Shaw-Savill steamer's collision with the Inca, twico narrowly cscapcil collisions with tramp in tho English Channel owing to fog. ' i'P" tain 11. M. Cruiso (lid not leave tho bridge for three clays and threo nights prior to the steamer's arrival at Plymouth.

Interviewed at Plymouth, the transhipped passengers stated that the Tainui ran into tho fog on Saturday afternoon, and it became impossible to seo a few yards ahead. At seven o'clock on Sunday morning the steamer Inca suddenly loomed up out of the mist, and the bows of the vessels collided, as the one was crossing tho course of the other. > Many of the Tainui's passengers who wero on deck saw the Inca's crew, some of whom were half-naked, rushing for the boats before they lost sight of that vessel.

After tho collision the Tainui begin to dip at tho bows, until in a few hours time the propeller was visible out of the water, and the boats from tho promenade deck were lowered.

Wireless calls reached the Garth Castle forty miles away, but it was ten o'clock in the evening before that steamer reached the Tainui, as the fog was still dense. The passengers wero not informed nf the seriousness of the collision till the evening. Then tho bows had sunk till walking on the deck was like climbing a hill. Later tho passengers were advised to retire, and the ( majority of them did 60, and went to sleep again, some undressing. The situation, however, l>ecame steadily worse, and they were awakened at three ■o'clock on Monday morning, and told to don the lifebelts, in order to be transferred to the Garth Castle.

Tho transfer was safely accomplished within an hour in the Tainui's boats. Tho Garth Castlo's boats were formed into a line, and acted as guides between the two vessels, which were three-quarters of a mile apart.

It is worthy of note that boat-drill was practised on tho Tainui eighteen hoUTS previous to the collision, and just before the fog settled- down.

Tho Tainui's passengers were accommodated in the saloons and steerage rooms of tho Garth Castle, many of tho male passengers on that vessel giving up their berths to them.

DAMAGE TO TAINUI. CARGO SUFFERS. London, May 28. The steamer Tainui has a hole three feet by two in her. Sho is being temporarily repaired at Corunna. All tho meat in No. 1 hold is bad, and will probably bo jettisoned. No. 2 hold is not flooded.