THRILLING RESCUE RECOUNTED

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1064, 30 August 1930, Page 1

THRILLING RESCUE RECOUNTED

PENYBRYN’S RUSH TO AID TAHITI CAPTAIN SALVESEN TELLS HIS STORY “HOW EVERYBODY CHEERED . . ” A DRIZZLING rain falling- over the wastes of the Pacific Ocean, eyes peering- through the deepening,* gloom, watching- for the burst of a distant rocket; sweat-dripping stokers in the engine-room. Suddenly a dull red glow in the rain and cheers from the watchers. • The Penybryn, racing to the aid of the Tahiti, had sighted the disabled steamer’s distress signals.

Sitting in the cross-trees on the forward mast of the Penybryn Captain Tborval Salvesen, her master, saw the distress rockets from the disabled Tahiti bursting in the gloom many miles away. Cheers went up from all hands on the Penybryn. which was crowding on every ounce of steam to reach the ill-fated steamer as soon as possible. “Everyone on the ship was terribly excited and cheers came from all parts of it,” Captain Salvesen said early this morning, as he detailed his part in the story. It was his first rush to the aid of a disabled steamer and naturally he is proud of the part his ship played in this ocean drama which ended with the total loss of the Tahiti in midocean and the saving of 251 lives. “GIVE HER EVERYTHING”

Tile Penybryn. a Norwegian tramp steamer bound from Cuba to Auckland with sugar, was the first to go to the aid of the Tahiti, though the passenger liner Ventura followed soon afterward. The Penybryn reached Auckland this morning from Suva. "When the first mate, Mr. A. Neilson, told me that a steamer was calling urgently for assistance I did not believe him.” said Captain Salvesen. “Then he showed me the wireless message, ‘Please stand by and take my passengers.’ I turned round to the chief engineer and said ‘Give her everything’ and we did. The men ail buckled into it and the Penybryn had soon turned round and was making for the stricken vessel.”

The Penybryn was ISO miles from the Tahiti when the S.O.S. call was received. A permanent wireless operator does not travel on the vessel, this duty being undertaken by the chief mate.

It, was the usual practice to call up all stations in the afternoon from four o'clock until eight o’clock and in the morning from four o’clock till six. He called up on the Friday evening (Saturday, New Zealand time) and received a message from Auckland to go immediately to the Tahiti’s aid. “It was terribly difficult to know the exact position of the vessel.” continued Captain Salvesen. “We put on all possible speed, but every time we received a message from the Tahiti her position had changed. She was drifting, apparently, at the rate of three miles an hour to the north. "You can imagine how far she drifted from the fact that we were 180 miles away when we received the message, and we had travelled from 260 to 280 miles when we reached her.

A MURKY NIGHT “When we first sighted the Tahiti's distress sigpals it was a murky night, with a drizzling rain. As soon as we saw the distress rockets shouts came from all parts of the Penybryn. Men had been on the look-out all day. when the position of the steamer kept changing I said to myself, ‘We will just go on and take a chance.’ “I saw the signals first at about 10 oclock on the Saturday night (your h hudav). We got within about 50yds °t the vessel and I was surprised not ■® Befl the lifeboats in tbe water. 1 thought when we received the message that Captain Toten was abandoning ship and that we would have to op the lifeboats. I could have accommodated all the passengers on the Penybryn, but in tne circumstances I think if I had een in Captain Toten’s place I would hon e done as he did - 11 was really to keep the passengers on and transfer them’ to the Ventura when she arrived. He sent up rockets every half-hour ss we steamed toward the Tahiti, sh ? we reached her the people nouted to us and our men shouted "suit. However, the words were r£ w “ ed by the sound of" the Tahiti’s nches, which were emptying the coiil/"^ r ° m tbe bold as fast as H ll -)’ A WEIRD SC EG E nn? *!? d '® c ult for anyone who was onp , re to visualise the scene, but it OI ine crew told a reporter that • as the weirdest thing he has ever an* W .w ,n hiH life - The night was dark in® Tahiti loomed through the 5, aer stern sinking deeper and hero 1 ? to the ' vate r- Lights gleamed dart ? nd tbere and their reflections shmiu over the oily water. People were tlin» ug and the winches were rathe Op i, OQ ely waste of the Paei®an - No one quite knew what before morning, and the st ri , n o ‘ waiting kept everyone’s nerves Th S i ° 0,6 highest pitch, to o "’ e ring of the lifeboats seemed th an ni t >ress Captain Salvesen more an J'thlng else. That, of course, tur» blowing day, after the Ven--8 aa d arrived. h lifeboats were lowered ■y a u U *. da **y from both sides of the * h he said. “I did not know m d was possible to lower so , »ultle,sfy boatS at ° nce and 50 thero* 16 a h'ti w-as on an even keel; was v 3S ao list of any kind, but she 2f y -i ow at tilo steru - Luggage towerpH a i 8 aUd passengers " ere eci from both sides of tbe ship. LIKE HEN WITH CHICKS PaBRPY* Was beautifully fine when the the v B f rs were being transferred to entura, which looked like a huge

hen with her chickens scattered round her in the ocean. It was a wonderful sight. There were 12 lifeboats round her. ‘'The passengers were all taken across in one trip of the Tahiti's lifeboats, assisted by one from our ship. Captain Toten kept three back for himself, and those who were handling the mails and the luggage. My boat made three trips between the Tahiti and the Ventura, between 11 o'clock in the morning and 1 o’clock in the afternoon, so you can see that the weather was fine. The Tahiti’s men seemed very tired, but I suppose that worry and loss of sleep had made them so. ‘‘Captain Toten was the last to leave the ship, and he received a wonderful cheer from everyone on the Ventura. He deserved it, too. for he had been through a frying time. It is no joke waiting in mid-ocean for your ship to sink, and the lives of more than 200 people on your conscience.” Captain Salvesen did not wait until the Tahiti disappeared out of sight Into the depths of the Pacific. “I would like to have stayed there, but we were running so short of coal that it was impossible. We had only five tons of coal left when we reached Suva. But for the favourable trade winds I could never have reached Fiji,” he said. “I did not know that the steamer had sunk until I reached Suva. She did not appear to be sinking fast when I left at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. LOSS OF LIFEBOATS

“It does not seem as if anyone will ever understand the trouble,” said Captain Salvesen, referring to the Tahiti’s mishap, and her filling with water. "I do not know. They said that tho vessel was flooding and sinking, but why she was flooding and why she was sinking I do not know.” Captain Salvesen could not understand why the Tahiti’s lifeboats were broken up before the

ship was deserted. He suggested that he would have liked one or two of them for his own ship. Sailors from the Tahiti cut holes through the boats with hatchets, so that they would sink. Nor can he understand some of the messages from passengers stating that a seacock on the Tahiti was opened. If this were done Captain Toten must have gone back to the stricken vessel after the Penybryn steamed away to Suva. Although Captain Salvesen has had some exciting adventures at sea, his rush to the rescue of the Tahiti has been the most thrilling. Tile voyage on this occasion from Cuba, where he took on his cargo of sugar for Auckland, has taken 49 days.