WRECK OF THE STORMBIRD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1606, 5 September 1916, Page 3

WRECK OF THE STORMBIRD.

AT WANGANUI HEADS.

THREE LIVES LOST.

Wanganui, September 3

The steamer Stormbird was wrecked on the south mole at. the. entrance to the river last night, and three of the crew were drowned, namely, J. W. Ilinchey, lamp trimmer, R. Kyle, fireman, and J. Hunter, fireman.

Captain A. Gibson and the remainder of the crew, making nine in all, were saved.

The steamer left the town wharf at 11 p.m. for Wellington. Shortly before midnight distress signals were seen near the end of the south mole by the men at the pilot station. The harbourmaster, Captain Mclntyre, with several volunteers, immediately proceeded to the scene with life-saving apparatus.

They discovered six survivors on the mole and four others (dinging to the capsized hull of the steamer, which was showing in the breakers about two hundred feet off’ the structure.

With the second rocket, which was fired, a line was thrown across the hull and the four men were grought ashore in a basket. According to members of the crew, the Stormbird was in light trim, and on reaching the harbour entrance failed to answer the helm, the vessel was driven against the mole, and heavy' seas swept over her, extinguishing the fires. The steamer eventually cut her way through the mole until she was held inescapably by the rocks at a point under the engine-room. It was at this stage that six of their number scrambled ashore. The vessel suddenly snapped into two pieces, the forward part drifting ‘four hundred feet before capsizing.

At the time of the disaster the night was dark and a heavy ground swell made a lumpy sea at the river entrance. It is believed that Hunter was drowned while trying to clamber on to the mole, but that the other two were washed oil the wreck. The bodies of Ilinchey and Kyle were recovered this morning several miles to the south of the wreck. The beach for miles is strewn with debris. The vessel was returning to Wellington practically empty, having only a few tons of cargo on board.

When she struck it was realised almost at onceby those aboard that the vessel was doomed, and four or live of the crew immediately jumped off on to the mole. It was very dark, and these men, after waiting some time, without seeing or hearing anything of the remainder of the crew, concluded that the rest of those aboard had been drowned. They then proceeded to walk along the mole, and when near the end they met the pilot, Captain MacIntyre, and the assistant-pilot, Captain Connor, and two or three others, who had rowed across from the signal station on the north side of the river on seeing that something was wrong. The seamen told the pilot briefly what had happened. The pilot and his- party went to the scene, but found it impossible to do anything in the shape of rescue work without, the rocket apparatus, as there was by this time a big gap between I lie vessel’s hull and the mole, - (mused by the smashing of the piles as the steamer rolled about. Captain McIntyre, who, by the way, skippered the old boat himself for ten years, hurried back to the station for the life-saving apparatus and more assistance. This was promptly secured and rushed across to the scene.

The first rocket missed, but the second carried a line to the men on the hull, and very shortly the basket, was in working order, with the result that by 2 o’clock the remaining survivors had been hauled ashore. Half an hour later the vessel toppled over and sank in about thirteen feet, of water, so that the work, of rescue was not finished any too soon. It is not known how the three men who perished lost, their lives, whether they attempted to jump ashore or what happened to them. It is said that all hands were on deck before Hie vessel heeled over.

Following are the names of those who are saved; —

Captain A. Gibson; mate, E. Hart; engineer, W. C. P. Richardson; cook, Harney O’Shea; steward, H. Williams; A.B.’s, A. Edmondson, C. Whalen, G. T. Nation, and E, Logan. Captain Gibson’s brother was master of the scow Southern Isles, when all hands were lost a few months ago in Golden Bay. STORMBIRD’S HISTORY. The Stormbird was 02 years old having been launched in May, 1854, by Laurie and Co., Whiteinch, Glasgow harbour, under comand of Captain McCalium, for Hobson’s Bay (Melbourne). She was originally built to act, in conjunction with another small steamer, the Wonga Wonga, as a tender for two liners - —the Sovereign and the Prince of Wales—which were to have inaugu-

rated a service between Melbourne and Panama. The project, however, fell through. The Stormbird came out under sail, occupying 110 days on the passage to Hobson’s Bay. She subsequently ran in the Alelbourne-Westport service. It is believed that Mr John Jones, of Dunedin, purchased her in the early ’sixties for the New Zealand coastal trade. Her subsequent owners were in turn, Mr George Haughton, of Dunedin, Messrs IV. and G. Turnbull and Co., of Wellington, the New Zealand Shipping Co., Mr Charles Seager, and finally the Wellington and Wanganui Steam Packet Co. Some years ago the Stormbird was lengthened to the extent: of 17 feet by Mr D. Robertson, at M ellington. She was an iron vessel, and a few weeks ago resumed running after a thorough overhaul, doing service which the most recently launched vessel could not excel. The Stormbird had two sets of new engines and another set of new cylinders. Her last engines were manufactured by Mr D. Robertson. The original .engines had two 24 inch cylinders and a 24 inch stroke, with a boiler pressure of 18 lbs. to the square inch.