A PERILOUS VOYAGE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 319, 21 June 1875, Page 3

A PERILOUS VOYAGE.

(Wanganui Chron iole.) It seldom happens that we are called upon to record such an eventful voyage as that made by the ketch Thames, which arrived in the river on Friday afternoon. This craft left Lyttelton at midnight on Monday, and with a fair wind stood on her course. Shortly after leaving port the Thames experienced the full force of the severe westerly weather which had lately prevailed, and here she encountered a fearful sea. Fortunately, the gale was nearly a fair wind, and before the furious gusts, often in the trough of the sea, she made fair average weather, considering her size, her deep loading, and the fierce violence of the wind. Under water, literally, was the voyage chiefly performed, frequently it being quite impossible to see a few yards a head, on account of the driving spray caused by the breaking of the heavy seas, each threatening to submerge the little coaster. But a heavier sea than usual broke over the little vessel, washing the captain, who was at the tiller, forward to the foot of the foremast, and sending the two seamen overboard altogether. The captain, as soon as he recovered himself, heard shouts for assistance, and looking over the stern saw one of the men hanging on to the tiller rope, which he had grasped as he went over the side in the backwash caused by the lurching of the vessel after the sea had struck her. The ketch was as quickly as possible brought to the wind, and the seaman rescued from his perilous position. The other sailor had also clutched a rope in his frantic efforts to save himself, and so both were assisted on board and saved from a watery grave. The vessel herself ran a very narrow escape from foundering when she broached to, and she took in so much water that all the food on board was damaged, and the fresh water rendered unfit for use. This occurred on Wednesday, from which time until Friday, when the Thames reached port, the men on board had no refreshments and hardly any rest, the captain never leaving the deck for thirty-six hours together.