Globe, Sydney, Wednesday 3 April, 1912.
MISSING WITH 125 SOULS ON BOARD.
If the Koombana has gone the way of missing ships, it makes three disasters of the first magnitude in which Australian vessels have been concerned since 1909. They are:
Ship supposed date of loss place lives lost
Waratah July 26, 1909 African coast 211
Yongala March 23, 1911 Queensland 142
Koombana March 20, 1912 Nor'West coast 125
478
Eternal father, strong to save,
Whose arm doth bind the restless wave,
Who bidst the mighty ocean deep,
Oh hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea.
If the Koombana has gone the way of the Waratah and Yongala there will be little left to the world but surmise as to the nature of her fate.
No one who has not experienced the frenzy of a Nor'West willy-willy can appreciate fully the grim possibilities of disaster which confronted Captain Tom Allen when he took his last watch on the bridge of his charge, and went hurtling into the willy-willy.
...hoping against hope that his ship will pull through. That is his lot, and only that.
Sea room is a great factor in an ordinary blow, but in the heart of one of these extraordinary disturbances the biggest vessel could no more be controlled than a feather in a gust of wind.
To be capsized or to go under to the onrushing mountains of water bow first is a possibility of every second.
A ship with any freeboard at all is hurled about like a cork, absolutely at the mercy of the elements, and at the worst, the master can only strive to keep his footing on the wildly tossing bridge, prepared to do his best in the case of any eventuality.
....the captain who finds himself at the business end of a willy-willy can do little but wait.
157 souls perished in the disaster.
157 souls perished in the disaster.
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| courtesy Trove |
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