A WRECK

Hokitika Guardian, 17 December 1929, Page 5

A WRECK

, S.S. MANUKA. AT NUGGETS’ POINT. PASSENGERS REPORTED SAFE. (By Telegraph— Press Association). DUNEDIN, Dec. 17. Advice has been received that the s.s. Manuka, en route from Bluff to Dunedin, went ashore at the Nuggets at 5 o’clock this morning in heavy iog and calm weather. The passengers are believed'to have ibeen taken ashore by the ship’s boats. The tug “Dunedin” has been despatched to her assistance. Nugget Point is on the south-eastern corner of Otago, jut below the mouth of Clutha River. It is a rough rocky point and ha sbeen the scene of shipping disasters .in earlier years. The s.S. Manuka is'a. well-known passenger steamer of the Union Steam Ship' Company engaged on the intercolonial Service between Dunedin and Melbourne, and is of 4534 gross ton-, nage and 4500 indicated horse-power. struck; the rocks. HOLDS AND ENGINE-ROOM FLOODED. VESSEL BUMPING HEAVILY. WELLINGTON, Dec. 17. The Secretary of the General Post Office has received the following message from the Chief Postmaster, Dunedin: The steamer Manuka struck the rocks off Long Point, near Nuggets, about 11 o’clock last night. It .is reported that numbers 1 and 2 holds aro flooded and also the engine room and stokehold. The Vessel fias a heavy list to port and is humping heaviry. The passengers are in boats alongside. It is understood there is no suitable landing place. The tug Southland should reach there early this morning and the tug Dunedin, later.

A TOTAL LOSS " NOTHING WAS SAVED. DUNEDTN, Dec. 17. A telegram from the Manuka’s master, Capt. Ross Clark, from Owaka, states, that the passengers and crew landed at Long Point. The ship is a total loss and is practically submerged. Nothing was saved. She went ashore in thick weather at about 11 p.m. The tug left Dunedin at 1.20 a.m. with Capt. McLean and a crew of 10. THE MAILS SAFE. DUNEDIN, Dec. 17. V All,the Manuka’s mail was removed at the Bluff. The passengers, whose number are not ascertained, . included the Fuller Comedy Coy.. due to open here on Boxing Night. All the scenery and effects were lost. The Union Coy despatched a special train to Balclutha to bring the passengers to town. THE PASSENGERS. WELLINGTON, December 17. The Chief Postmaster at Dunedin advises the Manuka passengers aie being taken to Owaka by car and then by special train to Dunedin. THE SHIP’S COMPLIMENT. DUNEDIN, December 17. Saloon passengers on the Manuka number 98 and the total passengers 218; crew and officers 120. Fortunately it was a calm night or a disaster would have been probable, in disembarking on a bad coast. THE FIRST ACCOUNT. DUNEDIN, Dec. 17. The first, account, a brief telephone one, from the actual scene states the passengers wore awakened by a shock at 11 o’clock but there was no panic. All, were mustered on deck. Several attempts were mado ;by the officers and crew to get a boat to the shore but the coast was too rough for a safe landing, so that it was decided the passengers remain on board through the night and at daybreak they were all safely landed with nothing but'the clothes they wore, mostly night clothes. Shortly after a safe landing the Manuka rolled over on her side. The passengers only reached Owaka at 10 o’clock. No complete story is possible.

POSITION OF WRECK. DUNEDIN, Dec. 17. Where the Manuka went ashore is roughly 70 miles from Dunedin. When the Union Coy received advice of the disaster, the'Kaiwarra, en route from Timaru to Dunedin with coal, was ordered last night to proceed to the wreck. The postmaster at Owaka telephoned this morning that the Manuka lies a few chains off the shore at Long Point, five miles from’ Tautuku Bay. Her stern is broken. The weather and sea is calm, the fog lifting, then falling again. The postmaster was proproceeding to the scene in a launch. VALUABLE PICTURES IN WRECK. WELLINGTON, December 17. A steward who brought- tea to E. Murray Fuller, the well-known New Zealand painter aboard the Maunganui this morning, did not realise all the word meant to the passenger, when he said:—“l suppose you know the Manuka’s sunk?” Some months ago in England, Fuller selected pictures by famous presentday British artists, and after showing

about a third of them in Melbourne, five or six weeks ago, consigned them by the Manuka for exhibition in Wellington Art Gallery early in the new year, except 100 sent direct to Wellington. The whole collection, valued at £25.000, now lies in the water off T-ong Point.