BAROMETER DROPPED FROM 29.75 TO 21.25!

The Advertiser, Adelaide, Tuesday 13 June, 1911.

Captain Sim:

He was in charge of the Grantala at the 

time the Yongala, disappeared. He was 

anchored off Cape Bowling Green because 

of the bad weather.After he had anchored it 

gradually got worse, and the wind veered 

round by west from south-east to north-west. 

He then knew he was on the right-hand 

semi-circle of the cyclone. He did not think 

Captain Knight would take the inside course 

through the Whitsunday Channel at night. 

and especially such a night as March 23. 

When the witness left Townsville that night 

the barometer was 29.75 and it went down 

to 21.25 later.

Questioned as to the force of the wind

that night, Captain Sim said that when he

was anchored it was not more than 71

miles per hour. He had it broadside on

for a time, and it did not give the Grantala

a list of more then 10 deg. The wind

was heaviest between 5 pm. and 3 am.

The witness did not notice anything 

phenomenal in the currents or tides 

that night. He did not think the Yongala 

could have been overcome by the elements 

alone. He thought she must have struck

something. He would rank the Yongala 

with the best boats on the Queensland

coast.

Captain Sim was caught between a rock and a hard place at the Inquiry. He wanted to be as truthful as possible but ended up delivering mixed messages. He knew Captain Knight well and must have had difficulty imparting a vital untruth that Captain Knight was likely to have used the outside passage on the night of 23 March. Captain Knight had only used the outside passage on about 3 occasions and for the rest had used the inside passage in darkness and bad weather. But the outside passage was crucial to avoid aspersions cast in the direction of the Queensland Marine Board - dearth of morse lamps at lighthouses along the Queensland Coast - see previous post.

Although Captain Sim came to the odd conclusion that he did not think 'the Yongala could have been overcome by the elements', and played down the force of the wind (Grantala only listed to 10 degrees) and the currents / tides as nothing out of the ordinary, he dropped a bombshell in the form of; 'the barometer was 29.75 and it went down to 21.25 later'. This extreme change in barometer reading was more likely to have been 29.75 down to 29.25 but still suggests a storm of exceptional violence. So much so, trees were uprooted in a swathe 15 miles broad. If Captain Sim had truly believed the storm to be not that severe why on earth did he anchor in Bowling Green Bay? After all his Grantala was identical to Yongala and if Yongala could have 'managed in the elements', why couldn't Grantala??

This poor man must have felt terrible after he stepped down from the witness stand. He was a loyal employee of the Adelaide Steamship Company and a prominent master of the Queensland coastal trade. Perhaps he hoped that the truth would emerge via expert cross-examination. However, Captain Mackay, representing the Queensland Marine Board had no intention of allowing the true facts to emerge into the light of public opinion.

courtesy the Australian National Maritime Museum.