Morning all, found this in some old emails. My Aunt sent me this, it is a copy of the script taken from front page of Grimsby Evening Telegraph. Thought it would make interesting reading. GRIMSBY EVENING TELEGRAPH – THURSDAY 26 FEBRUARY 1937 ________________________________________ Resourceful Grimsby Skipper Steers Ship With Trawl Board Lost Rudder In Gale Two Injured In Fixing Improvised Gear 700 Miles Of Thrills And Anxiety A remarkable feat has been accomplished by the skipper and crew of the Grimsby trawler Raetia, who have brought their ship safely to port, a distance of over 700 miles without a rudder. Except for a tow of sixty miles, the trip was made unaided. In its early stages it was accomplished by a jury rudder, and from Faroe to Grimsby by means of a temporary rudder made from an otter board. Skipper Joseph Sturman and his crew worked without rest for sixty hours at a stretch after the rudder was lost during heavy weather in Icelandic waters, and they had a perilous voyage in strong gales until they reached Trangisvaag in the Faroes. Here they were offered a tow, but confident in his ability to navigate the ship back to Grimsby with a temporary rudder, Skipper Sturman declined the offer. The skipper and a deckhand, J Rogers, were injured in rigging the jury rudder and both had to receive medical attention for strained muscles in Trangisvaag. The story of the trawler’s adventure, which occupied twelve days, was related to the “Telegraph” today by Skipper Sturman. “We left Grimsby, bound for the Icelandic fishing grounds, on February 9” he said. “Everything went well until Saturday February 13 when the wind freshened into a gale from the south. During the afternoon the weather became too bad to run before it so we lay for four hours. Heavy seas were running, and we started to “dodge” close to the wind. Just after midnight the ship took two or three heavy dives and lurches and then dropped off her course into the wind. I stopped the engines, and on making an inspection found the ship would not steer. At daylight I discovered that the rudder had gone completely leaving only a piece of shank in the pipe. Made a Sea Anchor “The wind had also blown the mizzen sail away, so we rigged a trawl door to a warp and paid out 250 fathoms of warp for a sea anchor, but it was not much use. Next we paid out a length of cable over the stern with steering guys attached, and managed to steer the ship with this, and later we managed to rig a trawl door which was slung over the stern with guys attached through the port and starboard hawse holes. At the time we were 430 miles from Dunnett Head, and I decided to make for the Faroes – a distance of 160 miles. All went well with our jury rudder until the evening of February 15 when owing to the increased wind and the heavy seas, the guys parted. Crippled Again We therefore had to stop the ship and get the jury rudder aboard and refix everything. We set off again but after two hours steaming we had to fix the jury rudder again, and what with the ship rolling about and the heavy seas breaking over her, it was a wonder that nobody was seriously hurt. Tribute to Crew But all the crew worked whole-heartedly and the only injuries were to myself and Deckhand Rogers. We strained our backs in helping to heave the trawl board over the stern. On February 15 the wind changed, and increased to gale force, and as a result of the door banging every time the ship rolled rivets were started from some of the plates, as we pulled them out and put in plugs to stop the leaking under the quarter. We got into touch with other trawlers at midnight and obtained our bearings from them by wireless and at midnight on February 16 the Aberdeen trawler Bendearg came up with us. Heavy seas were running, and it was blowing hard, but we managed to manoeuvre our ship close enough for us to throw a heaving line and after we had connected the Bendearg towed us sixty miles into Trangisvaag. We had had a very anxious time for sixty hours and none of us had any rest until we got to harbour. In Trangisvaag a temporary rudder was fixed by using one of our otter boards. While we were in port the Grimsby trawler Amjulla arrived and offered to tow us back to Grimsby but I declined and on February 21 after men had worked night and day, we sailed for Grimsby.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:18:09 +0000
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