THE ZEALANDIC'S VOYAGE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1607, 26 November 1912, Page 4

THE ZEALANDIC'S VOYAGE.

AN OPERATION AT SEA. The big steamer Zealandic arrived fit Sydney from London on the morning'of November 15 with 1 12S0 immigrants on board. When the ship berthed at Miller's Point, according to an Australian exchange, the sun was shining fiercely. The conditions word sweltering, babies were irritable, and to make matters worse, a section of the crowd tried.to get' on board at the one time, despite the fact that Messrs. Dalgety and Co. had made ample provision for disembarkation. 1 The majority, however, were quite satisfied, and the little mob, which made an attempt to rush the gangway, met with a reverse from the more reasonable portion of the assemblage. After this, all was orderly. The decks were crowded, .women and children predominating, as may be seen by the following figures, showing the ship's complement:— , Children under twelve 432 Men 309 Women and girls 539 Total passengers 1280 Ship's company 200 Grand total 1480 The disembarkation was conducted in good order. There were numerous reunions; in fact, it seemed at one stage that the stream of children would never end.

On board the Zealandic, in addition to the Dreadnought boys and domestics, there were no fewer than 26 young women, brides-elect, who have oomo out to meet the young men who nominated them. One of the passengers" said, "There'll be 26 weddings in Sydney before Saturday." Among the Zealandic's passengers were the Rev. J. K.. Elliot, of Wellington, and his son, Dr. Elliot, who was ship's surgeon on the voyage out. . A serious operation was performed at sea by Dr. Elliott and Dr. Quirk with great success. A baby was found to be suffering internal pain, and the doctors decided upon an immediate , operation. The hour was midnight, and the little sufferer was taken to the saloon, where the main table was used by the doctors. It was a case of acute intussusception (removal and cleansing of the intestine), and at the same time Dr. Elliott also removed the appendix. The patient fully recovered. Bad weather was encountered in the Southern Ocean, and tho Zealandic was severely buffeted. Only 265 miles were covered on one day. Huge seas swept the deck, heavy rain fell; and a succession of gales continued for nearly a week. There was little doing on deck until the ship made the Australian coast, after which everything was calm and bright again. The passengers, when spoken to on arrival at Sydney, said, "Nothing could have been better. We were well treated frohl the beginning to the end of the voyage."'