“Bolton” Damaged.

New Guinea Motorship in Collision on Sydney Harbour.

A SERIOUS mishap occurred to the new motor vessel “Bolton” while she was undergoing a speed trial in Sydney Harbour on April 12, im mediately before leaving for New Guinea to enter the Island service of Messrs.

W. R. Carpenter and Co., Ltd.

The hull of the “Bolton” was com pleted recently at Jervis Bay and had been towed to Sydney, where the in stallation of the engines and machinery and other work was rapidly carried out.

Everything had been made ready for the trial. The engineers were tuning the engines and the vessel was just being put “over the mile” when a collision occurred with the trawler “Bar-ea-Mul,” which came out of Woolloomooloo Bay.

The impact was severe and the star board bow of the “Bolton” was stove in from the deck to below the water line.

Water poured in through the hole and the pilot in charge of the vessel im mediately made for the nearby shoal off Darling Point and beached her. Several members of the crew of New Guinea natives (who came south recently to join the vessel) and the shipwright’s staff who were working on the vessel received minor injuries. One was thrown overboard, but was rescued.

The “Bolton” was later towed off the shoal and taken to the engineers’ yards at Lavender Bay, accompanied by an other tug which kept the flow of water in check by pumping.

A preliminary survey showed that the hull was badly damaged forward. The “Bar-ea-Mul” showed little signs of the collision.

It has been estimated that the “Bolton’s” repairs will take three or four weeks. The damage is covered by insurance.