SCOW ON ROCKS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 697, 24 June 1929, Page 1

SCOW ON ROCKS

ACCIDENT ON COROMANDEL COAST TOWED TO AUCKLAND During a light easterly swell on Friday evening last the Aucklandowned scow, Esme, was run on the rocks on the Waikawau Beach, Coromandel Peninsula, and had a hole torn in her bottom. THE damage -was repaired by the crew, and the vessel arrived in port at Auckland early yesterday morning, towed by the tow boat Sambo. The Esme, which is owned by Messrs. Winstone. Ltd., shinsde merchants, had loaded a cargo of just over 50 tons of shingle from the beach, and was waiting to leave for Auckland. At about six o’clock the swell carried her on to the rocks with a rasping, grating sound and she began to make water. The pumps were manned, the cargo thrown overboard, and the scow hauled off by the efforts of the crew. As the vessel has no auxiliary engine, Captain. H. Aspden decided that it would be unwise to leave for Auckland with the Esme in her maimed condition, so the owners were communicated with by phone on Friday evening, and next day the Auckland Launch and Tow Boat Company’s Sambo arrived to tow the scow to port. Temporary repairs had been completed, and the two vessels sailed at 6 p.m. on Saturday. They arrived in port at half-past two yesterday morning and, today, the Esme was slipped at the Shipbuilders’ Slipway in Freeman’s Bay for repairs. It was then found that four planks in the bottom of the vessel had been damaged and required replacing. By Thursday it. is expected that repairs will have been completed, and the Esme will be able to resume her running. There are numbers of rocks on Waikawau BeacU, which is near Great Mercury Island on the East of the Coromandel Peninsula. These rocks are continually being silted over and then laid bare again. Captain Aspden says that the rock which his vessel struck had been covered over, and that the easterly weather of the past week or so had uncovered it again. The swell running at the time carried the vesser~on to it.

The Esme, which is a wooden ketch of 20 tons gross, was built at Omaha in 1908 for her present owners. She has been trading between Auckland and gulf ports in Messrs. Winstone’s shingle trade. She carries a crew of three. No other damage waa done on board.