THE ACCIDENT TO THE TAKAPUNA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1156, 25 March 1884, Page 3

THE ACCIDENT TO THE TAKAPUNA.

The Wellington Evening Post publishes the following :— ‘ An explanation is at last forthcoming of the extensive but hitherto unaccountable damage which the s.s. Takapuna on being docked at Port Chalmers was found to have received. It appears that one night, somewhere about two months ago, as the steamer was coming down from Taranaki to Wellington, and was going at full speed past Opunake, a sudden and severe shock was experienced, strong enough to jerk a passenger out of his bed on to the cabin floor, A second-cabin passenger, who occupied the upper berth, on his inquiring as to the cause of this disagreeable interruption to bis night’s rest, was led to believe that the steamer’s counter had been struck by a heavy sea, and as the second-class quarters are right astern, where any action of the sea is most felt, he appeared to have accepted this as a feasible explanation. It has leaked out, however, that the concussion was caused by the vessel striking on the outlying ledge of the Opunake Reef, which she must have passed right over. She was well down by the stern, and so her fore part would pass clean over the reef, and only the after part of her bottom, being deeper in the water, came Into contact,

while the great speed at which she was travelling shook her right over with a sort of jump, and her double bottom prevented any material leakage subsequently. It seems pretty certain that if she had had only a single bottom she probably would have gone down directly after passing over the reef, and that with her double bottom, had she been going slow, she would have stuck hard and fa«t on the reef. It is cleat that she had an exceedingly narrow escape, and it is not reassuring to reflect that she has been running just as usual since the accident in her seriously damaged condition without any report being made of the occurrence, or any investigation of the extent of the injuries she had received.