YONGALA'S DECK CARGO ADRIFT.

The Advertiser (Adelaide) Wednesday 24 April, 1907.

ROUGH WEATHER AT SEA.

YONGALA'S DECK CARGO ADRIFT.

The Adelaide Steamship Company's

steamer Yongala, which reached Port 

Adelaide from the eastern States on Monday

afternoon, experienced tempestuous weather 

on the run round from Melbourne. She

sailed from the Victorian capital on Saturday 

at 4.35 p.m., and met with strong

north winds and heavy rain until early on

Sunday morning, when the wind veered

round to the south-west and blew with

hurricane force. Tremendous seas were 

running. After rounding Cape Northumberland 

at 4 p.m. on Sunday, the sea then being

abeam, the Yongala shipped heavy bodies

of water fore and aft, and about an hour

later two gigantic waves swept the deck and

broke adrift the deck cargo and did other

damage. The engines were then reduced to

"slow," and the ship headed on to the sea,

to enable the cargo to be secured. The

engines were again put full speed ahead

after the cargo had been securely lashed,

and the general impression of the passengers 

was that the vessel behaved splendidly

in the rough weather. She had 31 passengers 

in the saloon. 40 in the second cabin,

and 98 en route to Western Australia.

In my opinion this was a lucky escape. In heavy seas the potential did exist to dislodge/shift deck cargo with catastrophically destabilizing consequences - a shift of the centre of gravity to one side of the steamer, enhancing to a dangerous degree the list to that side. When Yongala steamed into a cyclone, March, 1911, she carried 11 tons of cargo on deck. Such distribution of cargo weight would also have contributed to a degree of top heavy instability (lowering GM - metacentric height). I shall return to this very important issue when addressing the circumstances surrounding the loss of the Yongala.

https://www.steamshipmutual.com/publications/Articles/DeckLiability0909.html

Dating as far back as 1887, the House of Lords in Royal Exchange Shipping Co Ltd v Dixon[7]held that there is an implied term in a contract of carriage of goods by sea that the goods are to be stowed under deck. Thus, in the absence of legal requirement, express agreement or custom/usage/practice, the only approved or recognized location of stowage is below deck. The House ruled that, whether the bill of lading did or did not contain the words “under deck”, any unauthorized carriage of goods on deck would constitute a breach of contract.