VESSEL'S NARROW ESCAPE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 124, 12 October 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

VESSEL'S NARROW ESCAPE

DRAMATIC NARRATIVE OF ICEBERG COLLISION. SPLENDID NAVIGATION BY BRITISH ■CAPTAIN.

After an experience resembling that of the Titanic, but without disastfeus result, the Allan liner Corsican arrived at Liverpool on Wednesday, August 21. Her hows were smashed as the result of a collision with an iceberg Dear Belle Isle, Newfoundland, on August 12. Captain E. Cook, commander of the Corsican, gave the following account of the accident:—

"On Monday, August 12, the weather was moderately clear until 4 p.m., when it began to get hazy. Speed was reduced to dead slow. At 5 o'clock p.m. we sighted a large berg right ahead. The engines were immediately put full speed astern, but before the ship had lost her ■way,' she touched berg with her stem head, setting that back 10ft, but doing no damage within 10ft of the water-line.

"Prom that time we had a dense fog for two days, and proceeded at a moderate speed until it cleared. As a preventive measure we bulk-headed the upper forward decks. All the damage is well above the water-line, and the ship has made no water whatever. Immediately after the impact the crew were called to the stations. The boats were swung out and taken in a few minutes afterwards. Water-tight doors were closed, We blew whistles and made other signals."

SPLENDID NAVIGATION. The accident confirms the evidence given at the Titanic enquiry to the effect that the best way to meet an iceberg if a meeting is unavoidable is with the stem head The preventive measures undertaken subsequently consisted of constructing bulkheads just abaft the damage between the upper decks. This temporary work, constructed of deal, reflected the greatest credit on the captain, the chief engineer, and the staff. While this work was being carried out part of the crew who had been berthed close up to the bow were accommodated elsewhere.

Although the accident occurred on Monday, August 12, at 5 p.m., the fog held until Wednesday, at 8.30 a.m., during the whole of which time Captain Cook remained on deck. The ship was navigated across the Atlantic without a •hitch, although she encountered a gale which induced the captain to take the route round the south coast of Ireland. The passengers assembled in the saloon at Liverpool and presented the captain with a gold watch and a purse of gold in recognition of the skill and care with which he had handled the vessel during the emergency.

PASSENGER'S NARRATIVE. The following account of the mishap given by Mr. E. E. Foot, who was returning to London after eighteen months in Canada and the United States: After the impact with the iceberg there followed a momentary stillness, and then a pattering of feet, which resolved itself into a rush of lower-deck ratings of all sorts to the boats. The next thing I remember, as the men gathered round the boats, was seeing a saloon passenger with a camera in his hand, and hearing a woman say in a voice shaken with emotion: "Camera be

The s'hip had ceased to progress and was heaving in the trough of the sea with the known and unknown lost in the darkness of the surrounding fog. The men were swinging out the boats with all the energy that men could muster, but with little of the skill with which the work would have been carried out by trained bluejackets. The passengers were gathered hurriedly in all manner of garments, and all had in their minds the awfillness of the recent catasuophe to the Titanic, which seemed about to be repeated to ourselves, with the added dread of the all-pervading fog Avhich swallowed everything beyond the Juigth of the ship.

To their credit be it said, T heard no wair or cry of any sort from any woman or from any man. The tension of the wait, during which I believe many were occupied in considering their last farewells, was ended by the most inspiring phrase I over remember to have heard. It was simply, "Swing in the boats." Then the bugles sounded the call for dinner, and some of us were soon sitting round a table which we had scarcely expected to see again.