LIEUT. STENHOUSE HONOURED

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2773, 17 May 1916, Page 6

LIEUT. STENHOUSE HONOURED

Bl r THE NEW ZEALAND CLUB,

Not even the most vivid writers of the most amazing sea stories ever depicted a voyage so full of wonders, so packed with strange incidents and dangerous situations as that completed by the arrival of the Antarctic exploring vessel Aurora (of tho Shacklcton Expedition), which arrived at Port Chalmers a few weeks ago, having finally worked out of the southern ice-pack, after being held for eight months in its iron grip. It was to see and ihear something of Lieut. Stenhouse. R.N., the commander of the Aurora, that a largo and representative gathering of citizens attended the luncheon of the Now Zealand Club yesterday at the Y.M.C.A. , Mr. R. E. Webb presided, and briefly introduced Liout. Stemhiouse, and in doing so spoke of the part that had been played by the British sailor in extending the bounds of Empire and of tho courageous w;ork accomplished by the club's guest in Antarctica.

Lieut. Stcnhouse, who received an ovation on rising, detailed tho position they were placed in on the outbreak of war, and how they had, owing to shortness Of funds, left without enough provisions. He traversed once more the heart-breakin» task he had in trying to find winter quarters that were, at all possible in M'Murdo Sound, related about their land anchorage «t Cape Evans, the gradual piling in of the ice, tho incessant blizzards, and the great ■ gale in which the Aurora was torn from her mooring, and was borne helplessly away, a prisoner, of the pack ice. Heiold how, during the long monotonous drift, the old ship was often squeezed like a concertina in the ice, making unearthly rows, while all.- the while the bo.atswninj-a Job's comforter, but a most conscientious man—would come into his cabin to report the slightest incident or. change in the weather. He would say that the engines bad shifted off their beds, and-would be disappointed to learn that nothing of the sort ihiad occurred. Lieutenant Stenhouse gave the crew all credit for the manner in which they stuck to their job, and referred, in a lighter vein, to tho manufacture of a jury rudder, with the boat-skids and reinforced concrete, in the making of which they had considerable trouble owing to the rapidity with.which the water would freeze after being brought from the galley to be mixed with the cement. When they were somewhere in the vicinity- of Campbell Island they got their 'first (wireless) time report from Wellington, which showed one chronometer to be over an hour out, and the best one to be twenty minutes out. .

Lieutenant Sten house was given a great hearing, and was thanked and enthusiastically applauded at the conclusion of his remarks.