COLLISION AND YET ANOTHER INQUIRY.

The advertiser, Adelaide, Friday 16 June, 1911.

STEAMERS COLLIDE

AN ERROR OF JUDGMENT.

Fremantle. June 14.

The Court of Mariner Enquiry has investigated 

the circumstances attending the collision of the

steamer Pilbarra with the Koombana on April 10.

The former vessel when being berthed at the 

Victoria Quay, swung round and struck the 

starboard quarter of the Koombana, inflicting

damage. The master of the Pilbarra states that

confusion had been caused him by the hoisting

of berthing flags. He was going astern in order 

to prevent striking the wharf, when the vessel

bumped into the Koombana. The Court found

that the master of the Pilbarra had committed

an error of judgment, but that he had been

deceived by the manner in which the berthing

flags had been hoisted at the time. He was 

ordered to pay the cost of the Enquiry.

The Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 28 July, 1911.

KOOMBANA DAMAGED.

The Adelaide Company's steamer Koombana, upon

being surveyed in Woolwich Dock yesterday, was found

to have six plates in her port side bottom dented.

She will have to remain some time for repairs, 

consequently her departure for Western Australian ports

has been indefinitely postponed.

Koombana was certainly accident prone. 

We know that Koombana was dry-docked, Sydney, June, 1909, at which time 13 hull plates were replaced and the keelson reinforced with a steel strap, these injuries having been sustained during the grounding at Shark Bay and striking a rock off Broome. The port side damage to six plates referred to in this report took place subsequent to Shark Bay and Broome incidents. Pilbarra struck Koombana on her starboard side not port side. 

What had caused this damage? Was the damage sustained bumping into the wharf after PIlbarra collided with Koombana? One does wonder how many incidents flew under the radar and how much went unreported. One wonders how intact Koombana's hull actually was during her last, fateful voyage, and to what extent such latent damage played a part in the ship slipping beneath the waves.

I have to say that it takes some doing keeping track of incidents, damage, and time line. Koombana was not 'too good for the Nor'west trade', she was 'too unlucky for the Nor'west trade'.

Woolwich dock - courtesy Australian National Maritime Museum.