THE KOONYA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 219, 10 June 1919, Page 6

THE KOONYA

'A SHIP, WITH A RECOKD,

.' • The steamer Koonya, .which is reported :■ to.be a total--wreck-at Sandy Cape, Tas.■ i mania, had the distinction of being tho first steel vessel to cross the Antarctio Circle.. ,It was on January 1, 1908, that . the Koonya left Lyttolton wit! Sir Ernest Shackleton's exploring ship, the • ■ Nimrod, in' tow. The Nirnrod was' a < small wooden ship, heavily ' burdened i ■with - stores - and equipment, ond Sit ' Ernost Shackleton (then' Lieutenant Shackleton) had realised that if he wero to have coal for the return journey ho r: 'raiist get into the-Antarctic regions with • a minimum consumption. The Union - Steam Ship Company offered to lend the '.Koonya and pay half tho cost of a tow >' ! down to ; the pack-ice, and,the New Zealand Government -paid tlio other ball. The Koonya,'under- tho command of Capi. tain F. P., Evans, was to turn back as j'.. soon as] the. pack-ice was sighted, since ■' a r 'sfcel-ship, unlike a wooden ship, coultt jiot .risk an encounter "with even a mod-''■/eritte-sizedv.block of floating ice. y - 'No more adventurous tow was ever unr"dertaken. Tho two sliips ran into bad •'' 'weather within forty-eight hours, ana/ ... (it. .times matle.scarfceiy more than a mile 'ail* hpur, the Nimrod labouring heavily at tho end of the towline and shipping many seas.-'"She was flung to and fro," •wrote Sir Ernest Shackleton, 1 "a tiny speck in this waste of wators, now poisea on. the -summit of a huge sea, whence ~.yve .got aljnost a bird's-eye view of the ' " gallant Koonya smashing into'the turmoil - ahead; now dipping into the wave valleys " from which all wo could discern of our consort was in very truth 'just a funnel and a mast lurching through the spray.' . . . On the morning of January 5 1 told Captain England to signal the Koonya. and ask her to pour oil on tho water in the hope that it might help us. To. a. certain extent I think it did, but (: '-Bot enough to- prevent the heaviest seas ; ; : froni : Jjreaking on board. The Nimrod yolleffiover' fifty degrees from the por- -' to each side; how much' mora -tliau' that 'I cannot say, for the indicator " recording'tho roll'of the ship was only .-'■-marked -up to 'fifty degrees and - the - -jiomter had passed -that mark." V" The'. Koonya continued the tow until '.■j:he morning of January 15, in spite ol ' a succession'of storms.' Tremendous sens were encountered, the Koonya 'as well as ,' ; tli6'.'l\imroil being swept.from stem to " stern.' One night the two ships were - f compelled: to heave, to and wait for-the C.'diwn'before proceeding southward. . The - .'"firsfriceberg was sighted on the morning of January U, but Captain Evans car--.lied'on .-until the pack-ice loomed on the '"' horizon.' Thou he cast off, well within tho Antarctic Circle,' after a tow of 1510 jniles. The Koonya was back in New Zealand JViiters within a week. ,