ENGINEERS' EXPERIENCE

Hokitika Guardian, 27 August 1930, Page 2

ENGINEERS' EXPERIENCE

LOSS OF UNION COMPANY

VESSELS

AUCKLAND, Aug. 25. Some sailors go through a long life without ever seeing tlie excitement of a ship wreck, while others seem to be doomed to suffer the peril. Disasters in the Union Company’s fleet are. fortunately few and far between, and it seems odd that in the two last big mishaps that overtook red funnel ships, two engineers should figure in each instance.

One of the actors in these thrilling dranias has not been more than about eighteen months at sea, and if he goes on accumulating experiences at the same rate for the rest of his life, he will have a remarkable career. The two men in both wrecks are Mr I). A. Gibb and Mr D. Mackenzie, the former being fifth engineer and the latter eighth engineer. Air Mackenzie is the man who has been wrecked twice in his eighteen months at sea. Both were on the Manuka when she ran ashore south of the Nuggets and on the Tahiti when she came to grief in the Pacific. Oddly enough, the loss of both vessels happened on the 16th. of the month, the Manuka on December 16th and the Tahiti eight months later, on August 16th.

As the accident to the Tahiti happened in the engineers’ department, it can be imagined that the staff had a strenuous task trying to save the ship and no doubt when the full story is told, it will be a« gallant as that connected with the Manuka. Tn the old days, the share of the engine-room staff in the working of a ship was not always recognised as it should have been. For years there was, more or less, feeling between the dock stall'

and the engine-room staff, the inevitable legacy from the days of sail, when the man on deck was supreme. In recent years, however, the engineers have had more justice done' to them. After the wreck of the Manuka, her gallant commander, Captain Koss-Clark, saw that their heroic work was properly acknowledged. Their “great gallantry,” their “devotion to duty in standing by in the face of great danger until ordered away,” was put on record, and the public, having read the story of the wreck, agreed that the tribute was only fitting.