STRUCK BY A WHALE

Gisborne Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1485, 20 June 1905, Page 3

STRUCK BY A WHALE

EXCITING EXPERIENCE ON A’ FISHING, YACHT..

Saturday's N.Z'. Herald -gives She following interesting particulars o£ tha exciting fishing ad/ventuxe : While txfS Cape Colville on Wednesday last the" crew of the fishing yacht Annie had a strange experience, their boat being gtr.upk hyj an unseen fish, . Which they supp.oss Xo be a "whale.

Almost immediately, the yacht beganl to leak, and the crew, consisting of the owner (Mr J. Gallagher* of Parnell), and the mate ,( - jVEr JGleesqn) started the oil engine going, and steered towards Waiheke, with the intention of beaching the •hoat- 'However, they ware unable to d.o this, the yaoht foundering almost in reach of the land. * Being interviewed, ;Mr Gallagher gave a graphic ‘acqqunt of what tc Ok place. About two o’clock on Wednesday, afternoon, just as they were gathering in their lines to come to town after a good day’s fishing, they felt a severe shock, which startled, them considerably. “ What do you, think it was? l ” asked the reporter. ” Well,” answered Mr Gallalgher,

■V we did not see anything before or afterwards, but judging from the in pact I think that it must ‘have been a whaler s Wo were in 30 fathoms of water at the time.”

“ Plow d'iid It strike the boat-?,’* - “ Plight across the keel, aft.’-’ I-Ie then wenfib onj toi cxpl'a™ rbhSat he thought the flsih was in the act of coming to tlie surface when it came into contact with the yacht, and that as soon as it twuohqd the Annie ‘it divecl again. That would account fon their not seeing the fish before or afterwards. Almost immediately the boat began to leak. “ What did you do then ?" queried the roporter. • ■, “ Well, there was nothing else for it hut to make for Waiheko with the intention of beaching the boat. We set the oil engine going, and endeavoured to make uso of our mainsail as much as possible.” “ How far away were you from Waiheke ?”

“ About 15 miles altogether.” Continuing his narrative, Gallagher said that both he and his mate had a particularly hard and anxious time of it, more especially as they were faced with the difficulty that if their engine were to stop, as oil engines generally do when they are under water, they would be done for, the sails being worse than useless, a 3 there was no wind. Tbß engine, however, although tee watsr was rising steadily, continued to do good work, with the result that thoy were very soon within cooce of land. But by th!3 time the engines were 2ft under water, so that the position was very perilous. At last, however, the worst came. When within 50yds of land tho engines gave out. Thore was nothing 6lse for it but to take to the dingey, which they did. They were just in time, for tho next moment the boot sank in about 20 fathoms of water. . Tho men rowed over to tho shore, where

they rested themselves for a couple of hours. They were then besot with another difficulty ; they bad no food with them. In order to get some they decided that, in spite of tho heavy gale that had sprung up, they would go to Waibeke passage, two miles away, whore the rest of the fishing fleet were. To get there wan a difficult task, as they only had ouo oar with which to scull the dingy. On arriving alongside the welcome Jack thoy were taken aboard and provided with food and dry clothes and put up for the n’ght. In the mo -ning they wove taken to town. Of the hospitality meted out to them Mr Gallagher says he cannot speak too highly. By tho foundering of tho Annie Mr Gallather wiil lose iSIOO if ail attempts to raise her fail.