ROUGH PASSAGE

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 24, 29 January 1934, Page 9

ROUGH PASSAGE

WYATT EARP IN GALE NO PROGRESS FOR DAY (Special to the United Press Association from Mr. Lincoln Ellsworth.) ABOAED WYATT EAEP, Jan. 26. We are 320 miles from Duncdin, but making little headway. , A strong wind, which swung right round the compass in 24 hours the day before yesterday turned t6 the north-east yesterday and increased to a velocity of 70 miles per hour. Some gusts wore estimated at 80 miles per hour. ; ■ ' . Heavy white-crested' waves appearing suddenly mounted to an average of 20 feet high and some rose to 30 feet or more. Swirling foam hid the blueness of the ocean and spray whipped from the waves by the wind stung the faces of those on watch on,the Wyatt Earp like hailstones. The Wyatt Earp, a splendid sea boat, rose and fell and rolled and twisted like a light canoe on a cataract, taking little heavy water on her decks, but being continually drenched from the top of the bridge to the alleyways with spray. The water penetrated everywhere, and everyone venturing on deck, including myself, failed to escape repeated soafcings. Last evening, when I was, for the second time, hanging my clothes to dry above the engines, a shower came through the engine-room skylight and drenched me yet again. ■ '. It is impossible to keep the alleyways' and messrooin free from water. It swilled from end to end of the ship, and, as we struggled between the roll: ings of the ship to ladle a few spoonfuls of hot stew from the basinst to our lips, part of the ocean on the messroom floor curled about our feet. How the cook managed'to prepare the meals is still a mystery, as were probably the contents of the meal itself. All through the, day and night the wind raged. At night I tried to rest in my bunk, but dare not go to sleep for fear of rolling on to tl^ floor. With tho engine at full-speed ahead, , the Wyatt, Earp just managed to hold her own. For 24 hours we made no progress, and at 8 o'clock this morning wo were in the same place as at 8 a.m. yesterday. About noon today the wind partly subsided. We are going ahead, in spite of the wind, which is still rated at half-gale force, making about two milos an hour. Had tho good weather hold wo would have been at Dunedfn tomorrow morning, but now, so long as the wind keeps up, one guess is as good as another. Hqwever, there is no desperate hurry. Even with several days' delay there will still be time to crate the aeroplane Polar Star in readiness to bo shipped on the boat sailing for San Francisco on February 20, and for me to catch, as I plan to do, the Mariposa, sailing from Auckland on February 10 to the United States.