THE RECENT GALE. VERY SEVERE IN WELLINGTON.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2146, 23 March 1908, Page 2

THE RECENT GALE.

VERY SEVERE IN WELLINGTON.

MANY VESSELS DELAYED. GOME EXCITING EXPERIENCES. Press Association. •WELLINGTON, March 22. The bad weather which had been experienced for several days seemed to reach its height yesterday.. Tho wind blow with hurricano force, and it rained tho whole day. No damage is reported in tho city and suburbs, and l the railway services wore not interfered with. No so, however, with the shinning. The Jtotomahana, which left Lyttelton at 6.10 p.m. on Friday, and was thus due about t> a.m. yesterday, did not put in an appearance till 9 p.m. When off Kaikoura the wind began to freshen, and by the time the vessel was passing Capo Campbell, a hard southerly was blowing. About 4 a.m. the Rotomahana was near Wellington Heads, but being unable to nick -up the light she turned south, and steamed slowly till the weather improved somewhat. ! When at half speed she -made three knots an hour against the gale, and eleven knots with the gale. The M’aitai was two days late in arriving from Sydney, which port she left on Monday. A heavy southerly gale commenced on Tuesday evening, and continued until Cano Farewell was sighted on Friday afternoon. She passed Cano Farewell at 4 p.m., and then ran into such a heavy southerly, with high seas and thick, rainy weather, that she was liove-to from 10 p.m. on Friday till 10 a.m. to-day, when the weather moderated, and tho Maitai steamed into the harbor at noon. . The coastal steamer Kalin arrived -from Napier at 2.15 o’clock yesterday afternoon, having taken 85 hours on a trin which usually occupies 24 hours” (She left Napier on Wednesday night, and, except for an interval of twelve hours, sheltering at Cistlo Point, had been battling with the elements until 2 o’clock on Saturday. Her position at tho Heads was serious, as” the sea, according to Captain Thomnson, was tremendous, the weather thick, and Hie coal bunkers of tho vessel at a low ievel. There was not enough fuel to take the vessel through the Straits, and Captain Thompson had great difficult- in making port. Perhaps the toughest experience was that of the little steamer Tasman. She left Nelson for Wellington at 4 a.m. on Saturday, and when a few miles from Cape Terawhiti shipped a heavy sea, which washed clean over the bridge into the engine-room and into the saloon, and badly started the bulkhead under the bridge, opening the deck seams, and carrying away the bridge deck ladders and tlie 'hatch over the foreliold. Captain Cox decided to put back, and ran into Oyster Bay, where he conferred witli the c a lit ain of the Charles Edward. Captain Cox then took the Tasman to Picton, and had the deck temporarily recau.lked, and she ran across to Wellington this morning. During the trip from Picton a heavy sea smashed in’ a port in the forecastle, and seas went over the vessel and again into the engineroom, tb.e vessel having to be stopped to enable the broken part to be blocked. Owing to Hie rain yesterday the Miramar pony races, and all other outdoor sports, were postponed.

OVERDUE VESSELS

AN ANXIOUS TIME. (Special to “Times.”) WELLINGTON, March 22. The blustering southerly gale which has made things so unpleasant for the past few days is gradually blowing itself out, and the storm-bound vessels are coming -safely to port. Some little anxiety was felt about tho Ivotomahana, from Lyttelton, and the Maitai, from Sydney, which were so long overdue, and it was thought that they might be sheltering, the ono off Cape Campbell, and the other off Long Island, near the Marlborough Sounds, but as a matter of fact they had crossed the Straits, but owing to the very thick weather could not -make the entrance to the harbor, and so put their noses out to sea again till the weather cleared a little.

The Rotomahana, which in the ordinary course of events should have arrived shortly after G o’clock on Saturday morning, did not berth till 9.30 ‘p.m., and her passengers were glad to get ashore. A little .later the Te Anau, from Westport, and a smaller steamer, came through the Heads, and steamed up the harbor, but there was still no'sign of the Maitai, which had been signalled at Cape Farewell at about 4 o’clock on Friday afternoon, and in the ordinary course of events she should have made port the same evening. It was now late on Sunday morning, and the smaller steamer having come through the Straits without seeing any sign of her, the authorities began to get a. little more anxious as to her safety. They could not afford to wait tui darkness again set in, so Mr. Kennedy, tlio local manager of the U.S.S. Co., at once began to arrange to send the Rotomahana- and the powerful tug Terawliiti out to look for her. He was just summoning the crew of the Terawhiti, when the signal station announced the arrival of the long-looked-for vessel. By midday she was steaming up to her ’anchorage, ready for the port health officer to inspect her passengers. The old Huddart-Parker liner, which some years ago had many a hard struggle against the greyhounds of the Union fleet, and which now wears the red funnel of the company she used to compete against, had come through the storm all right, and as a matter of fact she Just missed the harbor entrance by about an hour on the Friday night.' It was then so thick and stormy that no glimpse of the Heads or the lighthouse could he seen, and there was nothing for it but "to stand out to sea. People on shore expected to hear a tale of adventure, but tho story told*by the officers was a- very prosaic one. The passengers added that the steam-steering gear had temporarily broken down in mid-ocean, and that generally the internal economy of tho ship was much in need of an overhaul to bring it up to the Union Co.’s well-known standard of excellence, but otherwise all was well.

Amongst the passengers were tho N.Z. athletic team that had done so well in Australia, Airs. Fox and .vliss Russell (daughters of Sir Win. Russell), and Mr. Kingslako (a former N.Z. coachdriver, who had made heaps of money in tho Argentine, and now owns yachts and properties in England). There wero also, in the second-class a number of immigrants from Australia and England, ul a couple of Chinamen. The Arahura (from Nelson and Picton), which made port on Saturday morning, had a very rough trip. Captain Lambert, who has n.\d , a lengthy experience, says it was tho worst trip he had ever experienced. When lie left Picton the wind was whistling in tho rigging, and. the mist was 'banking so densely that objects half a mile off could hardly discerned. These were no conditions for approaching Pencarrow in the black of niglit, so Captain Lambert got as far as Long Island at the head of Queen Charlotte Sound, and there took shelter with a view to making Wellington in dvlight, and the hope that the weather would moderate. His ship was one of six vessels taking shelter under the island, and tho anchor was raised at 2.30 a.m., and half an hour afterwards the trouble began as the Arahura lurched and pitched a good deal in the lieavv seaway. “From a seaman’s noint of view" said Captain -Lambert, “the Arahura proved herself a good seaboat, but,” added with a smile, “J don’t suppose some of the passengers think so.” He was not sorry when he picked up Pencarrow, for at the time he was not two miles off the shore. Ho found a big sea running through the entrance, and he had great difficulty ip getting in,

RAIN IN ASHBURTON

Press Association. ASHBURTON, March 22. Tho rain, which commenced on Wednesday evening, has, with tho exception of a short respite oil Thursday, continued practically uninterruptedly since. The total fall from <1 p.m. on Wednesday till 4 o’clock this afternoon has been 2 inches and 1 80 points, while indications point to its continuance throughout the night at -least. Tlie tolal rainfall since the beginning of the month has been 4 inches 96 points, which is tlie heaviest fall over the same period recorded for over two years.