COLLISION AT SEA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 30 May 1913, Page 5

COLLISION AT SEA.

THE PASSENGERS' STORY. UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCES. (Received Last Night, 10..30 o'clock.) LOiSi>UN, May &). Passengers, who v/erj aboard the Tainui when alio collided with the iuca, interviewed at Plymouth, state that the Tainui ran into a fog on Saturday afternoon. It was impossible to see a few yards ahead. At 7 o'clock on Sunday morning the Inca loomed out of the mist, and the bows of the vessels collided as one was crossing the course of the other. Many passengers on deck saw the Inca's crew, some half naked, rushing for the boats before they lost sight of the vessel. The Tainui bigan to dip forward, until a few hours after the propellor was visible out of the water.

The boats on the promenade deck were lowered. The witless calls reached the Garth Castle, forty miles away, but it was 10 o'clock m the evening before she reached the Tainui. The fog was still dense.

The majority of trie passengers went to sleep, and some undressed. The situation, however, became steadily worse, ana they wers awakened at 3 o'clock on Monday morning, and told to don the lifebelts, and be transferred to the Garth Castle. This was safely accomplished in an hour i>.i tile, Tainui's boats. The Garth Castlo's boats, forming a Ijne, acted as guides, between the vessels, which were three-quarters of a mile apart. It was significant that boat drill was practised on the Tainui eighteen hours previously, and just before the fog came down. The passengers were accommodated in the saloons and steerage rooms. Many male passengers gave up their berths.

TAINUI BEIISfG tREPAIHED. MEAT BAD. GARTH CASTLE HAS NARROW ESCAI'ES. j (Received May &9, 9 a.m.). LONDON, May 28. The steamer Tainui has a hole three iaet by two in her. She is being temporarily repaired at Corunna v . Ail the meat in T o. 1 hold is bad and will probably be jettisioned. No. 2 hold is not flooded. ; The passengers were not informed 5f the soriousliess of the collision till the evening. Then the bows had sunk till walking on the deck was like climbing a hill. Later the passengers Were advised to retire. The majority rotired but wftVe awakened at 2 o'clock in the morning and life-' belts served out. The Garth Castle, to which, the passengers weiie transferred, twice narrow escaped collisions with tramp steamers in 'tho English Channel owing to fog. Captain H. M. Cruise did not leave the Bridge for throe j days and three nights.