Schooner Ashore.

Patea Mail, 23 November 1880, Page 2

Schooner Ashore.

The stranding of the schooner Jane Anderson near the Patea Breakwater is an unfortunate mishap which reflects seriously on the judgment of some responsible person. There does uot seem to have been the least necessity for it. Instead of calling it an accident, most practical men would set it down as an error of judgment. This schooner had come fi’om Kaipara with 52,000 feet of timber, consigned to Messrs Downes and Proctor, for constructing the railway wharf; also 11,000 feet of smaller timber, consigned to Mr Coweni for auction. The ship’s draught was about 9 feet, and there is plenty of water in the channel for a craft of this size. She arrived off the harbor on Saturday, when the Wakatu steamer was in port as well as the Clyde. A heavily laden schooner would require a tug of proportionate power to bring her straight in by a narrow deep channel. The steamer Clyde was chosen for the work, a very small boat which is well handled by Captain Bonner, but is a mere midge in a surf, and of no use fo l ' towing a big craft through an ordinary sea on the Patea bar. The Clyde has all her work to cross the bar in a heavy sea without any ship in tow. She dances like a cork, and her screw is in and out with the rise and fall of the surf. Yet it was this interesting steam midge that was chosen to tow in a heavily laden schooner. The Clyde would charge less than a steamer of adequate power, and so cheapness may have prevailed. If the Wakatu would not take the job, the Patea steamer would have been available in a day or two. The Clyde took the schooner in tow on Monday’s forenoon tide, the wind being fresh from the north-west, and foul for the ship. The speed was very slow in crossing the bar, as it must be with so weak a tug against a head wind in a strong surf, and the schooner got tilted more and more towards the east side of the channel, the wash of the breakers being rather that way. The more the schooner was tilted off the line of deep water, the more she pulled the little tug towards the breakwater; until the schooner got quite out of the channel, and began to scrape on the shallow bank eastward. Each touch on the bottom would check the poor little tug, which had enough to do to take care of itself: until the tug was actually pulled against the breakwater, the schooner having drifted eastward of that line. Then the tug slackened rope to give herself room to get clear, and by that time the schooner had drifted behind the breakwater, and could not possibly follow the tug without being drawn on to the wall itself. The schooner let go the rope, and had her head canted halfround eastward, to get wind in her sails to run her along the shore and work round into deep water. But the manoeuvre was too late. The ship’s heel was in the sand, and the wind did not move her, though the serf lifted her bow up and down a good deal. There she remained, her bow gradually working round to seaward, and her keel resting on the sand. She lay about 40 yards east of the breakwater, right behind it, and between three and four chains away from the channel line. As the tide receded, visitors from the town walked on the breakwater beyond the position where the schooner lay. She did not suffer damage in the surf, so far as could be observed ; but as the tide receded the full weight of cargo would press with serious strain on the keel, and the effect of that remains to be seen.

The schooner might easily be got off at full tide, with a fair wind anti an anchor properly placed, or be tugged oil' by a steamer with sufficient power. The schooner was intended to reach Patea at the last spring tides, and if she had arrived a week or ten days ago, tho entrance might have been effected without a steam-tug, in a fair wind strong enough to give her plenty of “way.” It is absurd to expect a large ship can cross a bar by a narrow channel, unless she goes with speed enough to give her

rudder ample control of the course. But going at a snail pace, the rudder would have no control against the wash of the surf. The channel is not quite straight beyond the breakwater, and cannot be so until the wall is carried farther out. Then the channel will be exactly in line with the wash of the surf the whole length of the passage, making the course as easy as a canal. The risk at present is so little, that this is the first mishap since the channel was turned in the present direction by the breakwater. Messrs Downes and Proctor went to sec the ship about two o’clock yesterday, and arranged at once to send three drays to get out any timber that might be thrown overboard to lighten the ship. Our information up to last night was that the captain had been awaiting instructions from the underwriters before throwing out any cargo. "When an insured ship is stranded, the responsibility of throwing over cargo lies with the underwriters. Messrs Downes and Proctor are protected against loss by having contracted for the timber to bo delivered.