Steamer’s Long Voyage.

Taihape Daily Times, 28 March 1918, Page 6

Steamer’s Long Voyage.

THREE RUDDERS LOSTj

EOUGH TIME IN TWO GALES.

After taking five months on a voyage, which under ordinary conditions should have been covered in six weeks, an overseas steamer reached Auckland recently. The principal cause of the vessel’s prolonged voyage was an unusual accident, which happened, to her when sis days out from her port of departure. She was bound from an American port to an Australasian, one, | and had covered 1500 miles when it was found that she would not steer properly. Investigations revealed the fact that she had lost about 26ft. of . the lower part ox her rudder, leaving only about 4 feet near the top of the water. When her stern lifted in the sea this part of the rudder was out of the water, leaving th© vessel uncontrolled by the helm / The crew set to work and constructed a jury rudder ojdt of derrick booms and hatch planks, When this was completed and h)dng over the stern it was found to bffe useless, owing to the heavy swell caused by the strong trad© \ It wjis taken on board again, r.~d an efiyft made to control the vessel -withyjails which the crew rigged, 1 his ab£o proved nseless. Experiments wereytried with the engines, and it was /found that when the vessel was L' lr *g full speed head to the wind, a course could be .made within four or fit/e points on either side. Progress made in this way, and in ten y* days a South American port iril reached, A temporary rudder was made on shore, but, as there were no docking facilities there, hundreds of tons of cargo had to be taken from the after holds and stowmd forw-ard to lift the vessel’s stern sufficiently out of the water to enable the temporary rudder to be fitted in its place. It was five weeks before the cargo was restowed, and the vessel resumed her voyage. The tempora>y rudder was not equal to the strain, and before the vessel had steamed 90 miles it broke away from the stern and sank, A return was made to the port, and another rudder made and fitted. This meant that all the work of shifting the cargo and tipping the vessel had to be reputed. Another five weeks were lost before she was ready to resume her voyage. The second temporary rudder proved better than the first as it took her within 1500 miles of her destination

The weather which had been fairly good, then suddenly changed to a hard south-easterly gale, -with a heavy sea. This proved too much for the rudder, which followed the others, and dropped off the stern. The vessel was hoveto, and kept nearly head to the wind by steaming slowly. The gale lasted four days, and during that time the sea was constantly breaking over the vessel. On the fourth day the weather calmed down, and the voyage was resumed with only 4ft. of rudder to steer with. The ship was manoeuvred in this way for 500_miles, when she ran into an easterly gale, which blew harder than the previous one. She was hoveto again, until the gale blew itself out and then another start was made to reach port. While hove-to in the last gale another large steamer caught up to the disabled steamer. The second steamer moderated her pace, and escorted the disabled steamer to port. When nearly 300 miles from the port a third gale sprang up and from the south-west, and kept the vessel hove-to for 36 hours. The length of the voyage had caused the disabled steamer to run short of provisions. This was reported to the escorting steamer, from which provisions were sent on board. Two days after both vesels made port. During five months the crew of the disabled steamer had not ben on shore, and were heartily pleased when they reached a port where permanent repairs to the steamer could be carried out.