S.S. KAITOA ASHORE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2682, 31 January 1916, Page 6

S.S. KAITOA ASHORE

AT OTERONGU BAY ALL HANDS LAND SAFELY SEVENTY SOLDIERS AS PASSENGERS STEAMER NOT.MAKING WATER At a lat'o hour last night Mr. W. R. Morris, Secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department, received a telephone message from M'Menamen's Station at Terawhiti reporting' that the Anchor Line's steamer Kaitoa, Captain Stevens, had gone ashore at Oterongu Bay at 6.50 p.m. during a fog. All the hands were saved, and the vessel was not mak« ing any water. The Kaitoa is reported to have left Nelson at 9 a.m. yesterday for Wellington, and conditional on her making a daylight trip a permit was issued for the little steamer to carry some 70 soldiers, who were going into camp,' and who could not be accommodated on the Patcena, which arrived safely from Nelson at 11.40 a.m. with Wirth's Circus troup and menagerie on board. It is good news to learn that all hands were saved, which, with the additional satisfactory information that the vessel is not leaking, indicates that she lias found a soft place in comparatively smooth water. Her plight will not bo an enviable one, however, should the weather become boisterous, particularly from the south. The news of the mishap was also conveyed to Mr. H. L. Nathan, shipping manager for the agents, Messrs. W. M. Bannatyno and Co., who at once got into communication with M'Mcnamen's Station. At 11.30 p.m. Mr. Nathan was advised that all the men from the station had gone to the scene of the mishap to assist the . soldiers to find thenway over tho track to the station. Cars will be sent out at daylight this morning to bring the passengers to town via Makara and Karori. Arrangements have also been made to dispatch the.Union Steam Ship Company's tug Terawhiti to Oterongu Bay at daylight (6 a.m.), providing tlie weather clears sufficiently for her services to be of any value. The Kaitoa is a steel twin-screw steamer of 304 tons gross register, built by Mackie and Thomson, Ltd., Glasgow, in 1909, for the Anchor Shipping and Foundry Company, of Nelson. Her dimensions are Length, 130 ft.; breadth, 22.5 ft.; depth, B.3ft. Her engines are by Ross and Duncan, of Glasgow. SCENE OF THE MISHAP. Oterongu Bay, as indicated in the ac-companj-ing map, is about six miles nortn-west of M'Mcnamen's Station (see

black square), and only about 6} miles from Tongue Point and Kavori Rock, names dreaded by every mariner trading into Wellington, and associated in the public mind' with the loss of the Penguin and some seventy lives. It was never clearly established where tho Penguin struck, but it was assumed to be Tom's Rock, another two miles to the south-east of Karori Rock. The Penguin went down on tho night of February 12, 1909, and arising out of that catastrophe, a ligliLwas recently erected on Karori Rock. /"'Under ordinary circumstances that light would have been observed ten miles away by those oil • the Kaitoa, but with a thick sea-fog. prevailing, as was the case last evening, no light, however powerful, could be of service to any vessel. There is' a boach at Oterongu. Bay, and, in view of the circumstanccs, it would seem that the Kaitoa has struck it. The- place may be reached overland on foot or horseback from South Makara. YESTERDAY'S WEATHER CONUITIONS, EXPERIENCES OF STEAMERS. I "As thick as I've ever, seen it," was tho report from the Heads Signal Station at midnight, in answer to a query as to tho density of the log. Early yesterday morning tlio atmosphere was ouite clear, and tho signalmen on Seatoun Hill had a clear' .view of all the shipping passing in and out. 'The liner l'aparoa entered tho harbour about '1 a.m., and. between that hour and ten o'clock half-a-dozen vessels made jKirt under conditions that make the seafaring life a more than pleasant occupation.' . Shortly after 10 o'clock a. thick ha_/:e could be seen approaching from the southward. It commenced with stray, low-lying clouds liko patches of smoke, but gradually these becamo nioro numerous until they rolled into a huge wall of vapour, and by noon tho whole Strait was enveloped in one- of those denso fogs so dreaded' by mariners. Tho Union Company's Pateena, which was making a spccial trip from Nelson with Wirtli's Circus, raccd up to the harbour entrance just ahead of tho great cloud. Sho was obscured by a streak of mist until close in, but she was signalled from the station to the Tolls Office, and made port in the regular manner. On the other hand, the Maitai, from San Francisco, was seen neither by the Signal Station nor the Forts. She was expected in the ordinary course, but the authorities were not aware of her proximity to port until her hull commenced to show round Point ..Halswell, Latet ia tho da,y the

steamer Asbbuiton steamed slowly towards tho Heads from Napier. About this time tho log could scarcely have been so dense, as tho vessel was signalled to the Tolls Office, and made port at about ■! o'clock in the afternoon. Strangely enough there was a rumour about the wharves yesterday that a sailing vessel was ashore below Pcncarrow lighthouse, but- this could not bo substantiated. It had, however, nothing to clo with the mishap to the stoamer Kaitoa, as the rumour was ill circulation some hours before tho Kaitoa could have touched ground on this island. Up till 6 o'clock in the,evening nothing of the fog was soon in the city, though it could be plainly observed lining the shores of Day's Bay and Muritai. Towards evening a southerly breeze wafted' tho cloucTs of mist into town, and out to sea it romained as thick as over. Tho whistles of a steamer were heard near tho entrance at_a late hour last nifrht, but it was quite impossible to sight anything. The vessel in the vicinity may have been tho Canopus, which was then expected from Westport.