MAITAI IN DIFFICULTIES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2963, 29 December 1916, Page 1

MAITAI IN DIFFICULTIES

ON A REEF AT RAROTONGA

By Telegraph—Press Association. Dunedin, Decomoor 28.

A radio message to the Union Company announces that the Maitai, bound for New Zealand" from' San Francisco, dragged her anchors and Trent on a reef. .

at Rarotohga. The passengers, mails, and.stores were landed.

'.He company has arranged: for", a. steamer to go" from Tahiti to Her assists ance.

x The.anchorage at Rarotonga is in the open sea, ,'the. vessels .dropping anchor off the : reef which runs right) round the island, and loading and unloading with the assistance of big punts, which are towed to and.from a jetty inside the reef by a steam launch. As is only to be expected with au ocean anchorage such a:s at Rarttonga, vessels;are not infrequently;compelled to jiut to sea in the middle of: their, loading operations when heavy weather comes along. The lagoon which surrounds the'island is very shallow at low tide, but'there is a suddendrop into deep water on' the seaward side of the'lagoon. ; ■ ..:

The Maitai was formerly kuown as the'Miowera, but on. being taken over by the Union . Company her name was changed. r 'Maitai" is after the river at Nelson. The old Maitai was a constant trader on the New Zealand coast, and was built at Luke's Foundry, Wellington, but on June 2, 1889,. while bound to Auckland, she struck a. piuuaole rock, which was' - wrongly charted, and went down' inside ten minutes, two of tho crew being drowned.

Tho Miowera, now the Mailai, is $ vessel.of 3393 tons (about tho same size as the Maori), classified in Lloyd's Register as 100 Al. She:"was built in 1892 by C. S. Swan' and Hunter, of • Newcastle-oii-Tyue, and. is registered: at v Dunedin. Her principal dimensions :ate: Length, 345 feet; breadth,'' 42 foot; and depth 25 feet. She is fitted with electricity, wireless, refrigerating machinery, and all modem conveui- , ences. Slio is similar to the 'Warrinioo, the two vessels being identical in many 1 points' when they first came to New Zealand. The dining saloon seats'over 100 comfortably; and the state rooms, etc., are well furnished and ventilated. Sbo is double bottomed fore and aft, the full length, and the hull is divided into seven compartments,' eich separated by a watertight bulkhead. She was formerly tho property of Mr. Jaincs Huddart, and was one of the first vessels in the Pacific service. Captain Jl'Lean, who joined the Mai-, tai when she was in Wellington last trip, is still: in command.. .