The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-11-11

Run Afoul of a Buoy
Cable and Had to An
chor.off Shore While
Divers Worked to Free
the Ship.

The crack Pacific Mail liner Siberia,
with nearly a thousand souls aboard,
met with an accident just as she was
Naval Dock No. 2 yesterday afternoon.
!, She got away at 5:25 and while her
.starboard propeller was running astern
it picked up a wire cable supposed to
have been attached to the Inter-Island
steamer Mokolii in rotten row.. The
backward motion of the propeller quick
ly threw the cable back of the propeller
onto the collar of the propeller shaft.
Many times the wire cable wrapped
around the helpless shaft and then fol-
lowed the chain at the end of the
cable But by this time, the buoy at
tached to the cable was seen to move
and the starboard propeller was imme-
diately stopped. But before that could
be done the chain had wound around
the shaft five times.
The dredging operations of the Pa
cific, which on account of her great
power, is presumed to have disturbed
the usual quiet of the waters of the
hal tor and to have loosened the buoy
from its noorings, so that when the
powerful twin screws of the Siberia
came in it's neighborhood, the great
suction produced easily drew the wire
cable onto the propeller and back onto
its shaft and collar. The rapidly turn
ing shaft then drew the chain after it
as described.
The tug Fearless was Immediately
commissioned to tow the big liner out
of the narrow channel where she was
liable to damage herself, and she was
hauled three miles out to sea, or just
inside three miles, for the Customs peo-
pie sent a man right out to see that
he tariff laws We're enforced strictly.
and three miles is the limit of Uncle
Sans authority.
Sorenson and Lyle were also notified
at once and Alex Lyle, just sitting
down to a pleasant dinner, left his
smoking viands and taking his diving
suit rushed to the wharf with his
father Young Bros tug Rover was in
waiting and under all steam hastened
to the scene of action, or rather, mac
ton, as the powerful steamer was as
helpless as little child. Investiga-
tion under the water revealed the state
of affairs just described.
Fortunately the buoy attached to the
chain had staid fast and was dragged
out to sea with its anchoring device,
which had ceased to anchor it. A grip
was taken of the buoy and it was hoped
bv pulling on the buoy and running
the engines the other way to turn off
the chain. Then the Wire cable can be
cut off.
f. w KIebahn, Secretary of H.
Hackfeld & Co, Ltd, the agents of the
Pacific Mail. and their wharf superin-
soon as a boat could be obtained. The
Rover is compelled to do all the launch
work as the Two Brothers is working
with the scow of the Reclamation,
Lord & Belser's dredger, and the Gus
toms house launch, the Water Witch,
is entirely enwrapped with the coils of |
the sea serpent, the pipe of the dredger
Pacific, so that it can not get out.
1t is said that the harbor is particu-
iarly dangerous now owing to the pres |
ence of several floats of wood lightly |
anchored, which mark the sides of the |
dredging contract. 1t is claimed that |
anv steamer coming in during the hours |
of darkness might swallow up" one !
OF these floats or, at least, its cable, |
in the same way that the Siberia pick
ed up what is supposed to be the Moko-
Iii anchor cable.
Unless the Siberia gets away by mid
night. the customs relief will go out
to take charge of her until morning.
At 11:50 last night, Mr.. Young and
the tug Rover returned to the wharf
for the relief of the Customs guard on
the Siberia. He reports that the chain
has been loosened from the steamers
propeller shaft and that he divers were
at work on the wire cable. How long
it will take to get that loose is not
known.
Incidentally, Mr.. Young doubts verX