Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-04-13
POURED ON
RAGING SEAS TO
SAVE DE MARU
Captain of Japanese Steamer
Tells How Vessel Reached
Here With Jury Rudder

While his Japanese crew squatted
down on the decks, taking a much
needed rest after their 81 days OF
wearing toll bringing the crippled
steamer here, Capt. T. Uchiyama,
master of the Katsuda Shokaf freight.
er Ide Maru, until last fall the Haiku
shika Maru, last evening gave the
Star-Bulletin the official story of the
voyage. 1t is a real Odyssey Of the
Pacific. .......
As reported by the Star-Bulletin
yesterday. the Ide Maru arrived off
port early in the morning, after a 81.
day struggle to make Honolulu from
the point about hoo miles north of
this port where iIer rudder snapped
off in binding snowstorm and gale
on the Great Circle route March 6,
when she was 10 days out from Taco
ma. She will be repaired here and
have a new ruader put on. This will
take two weeks. III. ~"
AT O'Clock the morning of March
6, when We were 10 days out from
Tacoma, bound for Vladivostok, we
lost our rudder during snoWstorm,
accompanied by heavy winds and high
seas, said Capt. Uchiyama. The
rudder carried away about three feet
below the water nne, breaking off
midway of its main body.
This happened in latitude So de-
grees 37yminutes north, longitude 163
degrees SO minutes west.
Using the availabfe materials we
first made sea anchor, which was
dropped in the water on March s,
but which carried away March IA,
owing to the friction developed by
the stormy seas.
I'VE used cargo boofls, anchor
stocks, chains, wires and ropes in
making q jury rudder. 1t was COM
pleted on March IA and lowered into
position at 1890 O'clock that after
noon, upon which we started toward
Honolulu for refuge. Our speed was
about three miles an hour, and she
ran only about $50 miles to the south
ward
"On March Is stormy weather and
high seas made it necessary to stop
at 10 a. m, and lay to. We hauled
up the jury ruddef on the stern, The
vessel entered storm field shortly
afterward. Angry seas swept the
deck and my ship rolled and pitched
heavily.
We Kept her. lying to, smoothing
the seas by the use, of engine oil, but
at daybreak on March II the jury rud-
der was broken to pieces by tremen-
dous waves. The weather moderated
thereafter, and on March 10 we start
ed making another jury rudder, using
the materials which remained on
board. 'fnss7
The second rudder, Capt. Uchiyama
adds, held, and enabled the Ide to
reach Honolulu safely. The steamer
was towed to the Inter-Island coal
slip yesterday afternoon, with Capt.
NJ. A. Madsen, assistant harbormas-
ter, plotting her In. The Matson tug
Intrepid was at her bow. and the
Young tugs, Makaala and Helen had
stern steering lines on her.
Munitions Cargo Guarded.
This morning Capt. Uchiyama hired
watchmen to guard the steamers mu-
milton cargo night and day until she
is repaired. A survey has been re-
quested. and win be made probably
late this afternoon.
When the survey rs completed,
about 1900 tons Of the Ide's 5000-ton
cargo, mostly her deckload of SIS steel
fat cars for the Siberian railway, will
be discharged. to tighten the steam
er's stern. She will then go into dry
dock. and will be tipped up as was
the transport Thomas, and the Matson
liner Wilhelmina, so that the new rud-
der can be put on.
The Inter-Island are agents for the
steamer; G. P. Morse of the American
Hawaiian is cargo agent, at the re-
quest of H. F.. Ostrander of Seattle,
to whom the Ide is under charter for
this voyage, and ID. L. Peterson is
broker for. her.
) The Ide Maru, according to the
American Lloyds register. is 400 feet
long, As wide. % deep. with a gross
tonnage of 45s3. She was built in
1889 at Belfast. Her home port is
Kobe. The last survey of her was
made in March,. 1916.