CYCLONE IN TASMAN SEA.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1723, 14 April 1913, Page 5

CYCLONE IN TASMAN SEA.

MACEDONIA'S TRYING TIME, FIRE IN MAKURA'S MAIL ROOM FIFTY BAGS DAMAGED. (By Telffraph.—Pjieos AMoolatlon.) Auckland, April If. The mail steamers Mnkurn, and Mac<# donia met with very lie,ivy weather whew crossing (ho T,ismaii £ien, which accounted for their Into arrival at Aucklnud. Tho exceptional experiences of tlio Macedonia, were explained by the commander (Cam torn 0. D. Bennett, 1t..N,E.). ~ "Tho weather Wsqually when wo left Sydney on Monday afternoon," ho said, 'and ot about 10 o'clock that night ws noted signs of a cyclonic disturbance, boas en mo up very rough, and wo liovrf to overnight, keeping the head of tho vessel to tlio southward, becauso tlio dis* turbanco was moving in a south-easterly, direction, right across our course. At five o clock next morning tho vessel was again got under way, and wo continued, steaming slowly through heavy peas until about 12.30 p.m., when a couplo ot hip. waves broko on board, and did a. cortaini amount of damage. Wo continued oa.l our way, however, and towards Wed lies-' day evening the boisterous weather mod-', crated, allowing lis to complete tho irin' at full speed." Just how stormy the weather must havo' been is illustrated by tho daily register of speed as posted for tlio information l of passengers. . This shows that during 1 th-o iirst twenty hours after leaving Sydney tho Macedonia > travelled onlv 11* miles, and during tho succeeding 24' hours only IS) miles, ns compared with her customary performance of 380 miles in the hours. The experience of tho Vancouver mail' .steamer Makuro, assailed as sho was by" fire as well as by storm, was certainly;' an uucnvinblo one. The vessel was fortunate in not sustaining such damago from;' tho waves as was received by tho Macedonia. She was in moderate draught, having taken aboard a quantity of cargo for Vancouver, hut nevertheless sho suffercd rather severely in tho gale. The hro which broke out among tho mails on tho Makura was very promptly dealt' with. On account of the bad weather the hatches were battened down, and it was" foino little time before these wero r<v moved, the task being made harder by ; the unsteadiness of fie vessel. The outJ break was got under control with a mimV mum of delay, however, and tho ■ and _crcw are deserving of great credit lor tho strenuous efforts tliev made to', quench tlio Name?. ' ' What was feared most, was that 11W fire would spread to tlio hold itsolf. inA J i Mothiujr short of a. miracle could have saved the vessel, and one of the worst_ maritime tragedies that ha» Happened in the Tasirian would have been.' added 'to the list. In the romn next to thei niailiooui iilAiilatiiig operations had; been in progress, and. thcro was a quantity of highly inflammable material lying about, while on tho deck below a largo quantity of timber was stored, nnd lin<Jl tho (James reached this tho (ask of sun-! pressing them would have been well nigoi impossible. The origin of the outbreak in* quite inexplicable, the mailroom is irine-' lined throughout,' atd this'would seemto indicate that the. outbreak started ini olio of the moilbags. At present Morrlsby and the officers can offer no espial] at ion whatever. Tho room was kepM locked,'and there was no occasion for if to bo visited by anyone. | Captain Morrisby, when seen by . a to/ 1 porter, said the voyago was the' worst he( had ever experienced apart from the conV flagration aboard. A>s indicating how rough tho weather was. ftp mentioned that only seven or eight passengers among m big complement put in an appoarnuce ati dinner tho night, tho fire occurred. Hadi the fire been discovered a quarter of an, hour later, tho whole of No. 2 hold would' havo been -ablojc. It was just, after 7,' o'clock when tho fire was discovered, aiid,< by 8 o'clock, the flumes had boon ex-i (mguished. Some of the cargo. a/ldedJ Captain Morrisby, had been a little dam<| aged by water. One of the officers, who' took a. promln-j put part; in directing the oxtinguishinpr operations, also expressed the opinion that] the outlook would have been terribly! grave had the fire not been discovered just/ in time. Tho officers and crew realised., this fact, and redoubled their efforts to suppress tho outbreak as quickly as pos-i siblo. Ho paid 'a warm tribute to tho' manner in winch the crew worked in got-' ting tho outbreak under control. I Mr. F. D. Holdswortli, chief postmaster,/ told the pressman that twelve Londonj nowsbags, two Loudon letter-bags, anil, one Paris bag delivered here wero danw aged by water. This portion, all happens ed to be for Auckland. About a thousand letters liad been damaged, but the dresses on these wero still and after they liad l>een specially stnmp< cd they would be delivered at their atU dresses'. Mr. Holdswortli was warm in his praise of tho intelligent manner -an which tlie mails were handled by tho offi.' ccrs of the ship, remarking that tho methods adopted had resulted in tho losv being much less than it would otherwise l have been. Exactly how many newspapers! and letters have been totally destroyed it is difficult to'cstimite, but tho number! of bags affected altogether is probablyv about fifty.