PAROTO ARRIVES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 744, 17 August 1929, Page 1

PAROTO ARRIVES

HOLE UNDER ENGINEROOM GOES TO SLIP THIS AFTERNOON “The wind suddenly chopped from nor’-west to sou’-east, the sea got up before we could get the engines going, the starboard cable parted off the moorings and the vessel dragged ashore, pulling the port anchor with her,” said Captain H. M. Ryder, .master of the Northern Steamship Company’s auxiliary schooner Paroto, which went ashore on Crater Bay, White Island, at 11.30 o’clock on the night of Wednesday, August 7. /

nr HE Paroto arrived in port at 6 o’clock this morning in tow of the Northern Company’s Apanui, and the two ve’ssels berthed at the company’s wharf. At high-water this afternoon the damaged vessel is to go on to the Harbour Board’s slipway for repairs. Arriving at Crater Bay from Tauranga at 6 a.m. on the Wednesday, the Paroto started loading sulphur for the return trip, but operations had to be abandoned on account of rain, and the vessel remained to carry on the next day. That night she was blown ashore in the manner outlined by Captain Ryder. He and the crew of six got away from the vessel over the bow, waded ashore aid made for the sulphur works, where they made a fire and stayed until daylight, when they walked over the hill to the camp and were given breakfast. Too much wind and sea prevented anything being done to save the Paroto that day, but on the Friday morning, conditions having abated, the crew ran lines out to seaward, one to a buoy and another secured to an anchor, to stop the ship from driving any further up the beach. That night the Apanui arrived from Auckland with salvage gear aboard and a salvage party under Captain M. Pierottl, the Northern Company's marine superintendent. Adverse weather and poor tides prevented the refloating of the Paroto until last Thursday afternoon, when a successful attempt was made at 3 o’clock. After the salvage gear had been removed the vessel left for Auckland at 5 p.m. in tow of the Apanui. On board the Paroto was a powerful salvage pump belonging to the Auckland Launch and Towboat Company, which had been sent down on the Northern Company’s Tuhoe. Moderate weather was experienced on the return trip, but it was thought safest to shelter at Kennedy Bay before clearing East Cape, as the wind had increased in force somewhat. The vessels stayed there for four hours, when the wind subsided to some extent and they- cleared the cape last night. The Paroto made very little water during the trip, the salvage pump being used only at intervals when it rose to the level of the keelson.

The exact extent of the damage suffered by the vessel will not be known until she is slipped and an inspection made. At present she is known to have torn a hole in her bottom underneath the engine-room by grinding on the rocks that lie in numbers on the floor of Crater Bay, and about 20ft of her starboard bulwarks were flattened out on to the deck. This latter has already been partly rectified.