THE DISMASTED SHIP DALLAM

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1591, 10 September 1873, Page 2

THE DISMASTED SHIP DALLAM

„ The shipDaUam Tower which pjut into Port Philip onhervoyageip Dunedin, is being .discharged at Williamstojr n, , and her cargo will be stored at the Government Railway sheds, until the ship is refitted. * She -wil be at least three months before f^ she can proceed on her voyage; to Qtagq. / There will be 'considerable damage tp r the cargo, and it will be desirable, that 'consignees at oncefprward to the|r Melbourne agents bills of lading and in voices of property, in : qrder that their intereste bel duly protected. $eyeral firm^ wlio ; haye branch bouses in Ifew have applied fqr delivery of their goods j but i^ will be impossible for the captain to give np possession of ; anything, , without the production of bills of lading and invoices, and receiving a fnll acquittanc«."' The following description of disaster and the : condition of the vessel appear in tlie Argus, of August 23 :~ ■ ; ; \ "The destr^tionv Kas'feen complete

- Not so much as a loose spar is to be seen on the deck. Apparently the only portable article which has been left is a fragment of the main cap — half of a broad band of iron, with iron projections. When the tempest tore up the mizenmast, it opened a large hole on the poop deck. A depression in the bulwarks jnstin front of the poop marks the spot at which the mainmast went overboard. The iron has been beaten down about a foot. An unshapely frame and two twisted wheels represent all that remains of the pumps which stood at the foot of the mainmast when it fell. The foremast remains as it fell. The head is buried in the depths of the hold; the bottom rests upon the deckhouse, and points up to the sky. Had the deckhouse not been bo close to the mast, it must have been broken up into chips. But the galley has been spared, and the damage limited 1o the compartment which contains the donkey-engine and bciler. The roof of the compartment has been crushed in, and the boiler considerably injured, but the engine has had a fortunate escape. To realise thoroughly the extent of the wreck, the visitor must enter the saloon. The captain's cabin stood in front of the mizenmast, opposite i the doorway. Some empty shelves and a few boards are all that have been left. But one word expresses the condition of the saloon — gutted. From one side every voatige of the berths is gone, and the iron skin of the ship has been bared in several places. Broken frames represent the places which were occupied by the berths on the other side. The outlines of some of the bunks can still be traced, but the partition walls have gone, and with them every door. Tables, racks, the piano, long ago disappeared. But one whole article remains— a handsome mirror which was placed at the back of the mizenmast. When the aea burst into the saloon and set every table and form afloat, it could not search out anything tall enough, or awkward enough to strike the mirror, and thus it has escaped free from injury. " The saloon was one of the first places to suffer from the storm. The seas broke over the sides about midships, hurried aft, burst into the saloon and filled it with water. This occurred at night, when the passengers were in bed. They got up, and hastened into the stern cabin, where the women found lockers high enough from the floor to place them above water. Efforts were then made to empty the saloon and barricade the front. But the sea: was too powerful ;' the doors were in, the furniture was caught up and driven from place to place. No one could stay with safety to bale out. Three children had been left in the berths. The second officer, Mr Moseley, met with an accident when he rescued one of them. The injury (a broken finger) seemed trivial at the time, but it became a very serious one, and brought on symptoms of lockjaw. He was disabled from duty, and on the days which followed he could not venture further than the forecastle door, because no one could hold on with less than two hands. Mr Moseley is now in the Melbourne Hospital, under treatment for -the broken finger and rheumatism. When daylight arrived, the passengers had to be conducted from the sterncabin to the forecastle, for the former place was no longer safe. The women , had to put on men's coats and trousers above their night-clothes. Boxes, beds, everything had vanished. The saloon wati filled with fragments, which the sailors at the first opportunity fished out and flung overboard to save the vessel's sides. 1 From that time forward, men, women, and children, passengers, officers, and seamen, had but one apartment to " sleep in— the forecastle, which contained 27 berths. The number of persons the narrow place had to accommodate was. €6 • ,or 67. Two or three women occupiedjone ,berth ; some of the men slept on the sailors' trunks. The bales of hay which had been put on board as food for the pair of high-bred bulls were brought in, and the straw beds made upon the 'floor. The bulls themselves vanished during the first night. For the first two days the twelve steerage passengers occupied: a position which must have seemed very precarious. The hatches could not be opened on account of the quantities; of water which burst upon the deck. Those above could not communicate in any way with those below, and the two parties remained in ignorance of each other's condition until the weather moderated somewhat on the third day. The persons 'tween decks heard the uproar above them, but amidst the commotion could not distinguish one event from another. They therefore broke open the stores which happened fortunately to be within reach, and waited patiently for the issue of events. The fore part of the ship, where these 66 souls spent several weeks, atood firm to the end. They would Have had a poor chance of life if they bad had to depend on the boats, for the boats' on the, quarter were swept away ; one of |the boats on the deck-house was smashed by v the foremast, and the other was disabled before the mast fell, and could only be partly patched up. " Must it not strike everyone as extraordinary that the persons on board a ship which ' has come through such disasters should have escaped accident? Except the second mate, whose mishap was a peculiar one, not a soul — not even ; one of the eight or nine children — has an injury to show. Strong masts and yards were torn out of the deck, boats swept away, but no limbs were crushed. "Officers and saloon passengers have lost everything but the clothes they stand in. We have already stated what clothes the women stood in, and may add that they went on board the Cape Clear in the same clothes. Some of the men go about now in other persons' clothes. One of them showed us yesterday a shirt, and half the case of a silver watch, as the whole of the property he had rescued from the wreck. The seamen, who, perhaps, could least afford to lose anything, have suffered the least, and their boxes seem to be undamaged. N.o one can look at the dismantled state* of the ship withput feeling astonished that Captain Pavies should ever ha,ve gopher into a place of safety. Two tb.pusa.nd miles appear to be a very Jong distance for a ship to traverse under ijury-masts and three square sails, and one cannot wonder that so many of the passengers jumped at the chance to come by another vessel. Those who stuck to the ship— one was a lady — have now the satisfaction to feel that they got into port before the Cape Clear. Captain Dayies has been an old voyager to Port Phillip, for he was first mate on board the Champion of the Seas and the Bed Jacket, two ships which were well-known in their time." ,

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