ENGINEER'S GREAT FEAT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 172, 29 December 1914, Page 3

ENGINEER'S GREAT FEAT.

ESCAPE 01? THE SOUTIIPORT. SURPRISE FOR GERMANS. 1 Dunedin, Tuesday. | jT.c jjvcnL resourcefulness of son-ga-in g engineers', was rarely eve." so strikingly i-nc.i s>fully displayed in in Hie ' rescuing of the steamer from licr Ger- | man captors. It will l)e remembered i t*ial after the outbreak of war, we real ' I or the Southport escaping from a port whither she had been conveyed by her German captors and making her way in a crippled condition to Brisbane. Her engineers saved her; it was a great feat, as the particulars show. The Soutlipcf, wits coaMsdcn, and in capturing her, the German warship secured a prize which caused the enemy to exult exceedingly in triumph. She was conveyed to a German port nortli of Australia. Her captors took 200 tons of coal out of her, and then hurried away on another raiding trip. Before leaving they took steps to render the collier incapable of escaping during their absence. German engineers went aboard the British steamer, and took away four of her six eccentric straps, removed a length of her copper steam piping, and commandeered every drop of lubricating 'oil. Drilling machines and other tools were also removed, with the exception of a hammer and a chisel. In this plight the Southport was deemed safely secured until the Germans returned to remove the balance of her coal cargo and then probably to , scuttle her, but they had not counted , on the resourcefulness of British sca- ; faring men. As soon as ever the captors withdrew, the Sonthport's engineers set to work. The job progressed favorably but the lack of lubricants seemed fatal to all hopes of escape. Presently, liow- : ever, somebody remembered that the previous cargo included a case of oil in the after hold. A search ensued, and • a drum of oily mixture was discovered. 1 The vessel slipped away from her anchorage, and nosed her way into the open sea with one eccentric on high ' pressure and one on low pressure. It takes an engineer to realise the significance of the hazard. The steamer went ahead, enough until she reached Brisbane safely.