SUDDEN AND CATASTROPHIC?

In a previous post "PUT RIGHT OUT TO SEA', I substituted the "Cromarty" with an hypothetical Koombana; a period article describing the challenges experienced by a 'light' steamer in rough weather conditions, as follows:  

"Owing to the heavy seas, the gale, and the 

strong currents, together with the fact 

that the vessel was flying very light, the 

Koombana refused to answer her helm, and 

became practically unmanageable. The 

steamer was only drawing 12ft. forward and 17ft. 

aft, and could not be controlled in heavy weather.

During the whole time she was pounding heavily, 

and at intervals of every few minutes her engine 

raced."

'Pounding heavily' reminds us of another piece of the evidence puzzle:

Sunday Times, 14 July, 1912.

THE LOST STEAMER KOOMBANA.

Captain Irvine, Chief Harbor-master of Fremantle

(W.A.), received the following telegram from Broome

on Monday : 'Bullara, on passage from Cossack to Port

Hedland, passed derelict, appeared to be submerged bilge

of vessel, 15Oft. or 200ft. long, in latitude 20 deg. 10 min.

south and 118 deg. 3 min. east.'

The general impression amongst shipping men is that

the derelict is portion of the Koombana. 

Fix this tex

97 miles southwest of the oil patch, 13 miles offshore, the submerged 'bilge' was discovered four months after the disaster. This important discovery suggested that Koombana had sustained hull damage.

Given the Bullarra report, as it stands, had Koombana's hull 'snapped or cracked' or the damage sustained when striking the seabed ? The latter was well documented in the case of the Clan Ranald when a diver went down and reported:

"There are several long furrows in the bottom immediately

to the eastward of the ship, as if her starboard

bilge keel had bumped several times before

she finally settled down." 

It must be remembered that Koombana's hull had suffered repeated insults in the form of groundings; striking a rock; bumping the outer bar at Port Hedland; resting on muddy bottom at low tide and a blow from the SS Pilbarra. 

Although repairs were made to overt damage and the keelson reinforced with a steel strap, the latent damage might still have been significant. A steamer's hull could 'snap or crack' under certain certain lading circumstances and wave lengths as outlined in the following extract drawn from Wikipedia:

"Hogging is the stress a ship's hull or keel experiences that causes the center or the keel to bend upward. Sagging is the stress a ship's hull or keel is placed under when a wave is the same length as the ship and the ship is in the trough of two waves. This causes the middle of the ship to bend down slightly, and depending of the level of bend, may cause the hull to snap or crack."

From the description of the "Cromarty', in this case Koombana in light, top heavy condition heading east for Broome with a long period, rolling sea coming up behind (from the southwest) and a gale from the (north)west 'pounding heavily'.

The bulk of wreckage was found to the north and west of Bedout Island significant distances from Port Hedland. Given the time frame of four months this large component of wreckage could theoretically have been drifting steadily further southwestward, a lone survivor of the flotsam flotilla , ultimately destined for the shoreline further down the coast.

https://koombanarevisited.blogspot.com/2024/05/put-right-out-to-sea.html