TUG’S LONG VOYAGE.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 May 1924, Page 1

TUG’S LONG VOYAGE.

EXCITINC EXPERIENCES

SYDNEY, April 23,

Stowaways and storms provided uiuiv than a suiticiency oi adventure [or the little tug •lames \t allace, of li.'O tons, which reached T‘ reman tie, en route to Sydney from Glasgow. last week. \\ r iiile between Glasgow and Gibraltar, the first, stage of Hie long and for so small a eraft. daring voyage, three stowaways were discovered Inuing behind the boilers. They had heard that ll ic tug was hound for Australia, and had taken the opportunity of attempting to secure a free passage. In a few days they had wished that the finger of adventure had pointed to another mode of travel, as the tug met with exceptionally heavy weather, in the southern portion of the Insa Sta, and ran into an extremely heree gale in the liny of Biscay. “It was the worst gale reported during the winter,” said C’apt. Hewer in describing the voyage. "The strong winds from the east whipped tlie sen into huge waves that broke right over the little vessel. We shipped seas at an alarming rate, but eaeli successive roller was safely shaken outboard, and the tug pushed onwards. The conditions in Hie stokehold may he imagined, when I say that one fireman was so badly injured that lie bad to be landed at Gibraltar. The best- weather of the trip, we had on the mu from Port Said to .level Teir. nut from .level Toil' to Aden the elements combined for a further manifestation of their awtulness. The seas were running high, and strong wind was blowing. The fender wood and the cope iron on the port bow were washed away, anti we were very glad when wo reached Aden. At Colombo the third engineer was put a.-hore suffering from illness. The run from Colombo to llatavia was uneven'. fid. and we did that stretch of 188-1 miles in 7 (lays 19 hours, or at the rate of JO knots.”

The toe’s experience.-, were added to while she was ill port at Jlatavia. A cyclone “hit 1 ’ the town and unroofed tlicr harbour-master's dwelling close to where the tug was King. A vessel working cargo near the tug had her hatches stripped, the coolies who were standing on the tarpaulins used to cover the hatches were caught up like so much straw, and carried away distances of up to a few hundred feet by the force of the blow. The .James Wallace escaped unscathed. Bad weather marked the journey from Batavia to Fremantle. On leaving Batavia an exceptionally heavy gale was encountered in the Sunda Strait. The tug was thrashed by boiling seas that swept furiously over her. and dangerously large quantities of water were slapped. Bushing south the north-west coast of Au-lraiia was reached, but the Weil ther did not abate. Persistent easterly gales Hung the little eiaft around like a cork, and on many occasions the conditions were so had that speed was slackened, and for 3<’> awful hours the vessel was “hove-to oil' the Xorlli-West Cape. Making as much as possible of the shelter afforded by the coast, the vessel made better weather on the latter portion of the run. and her steaming time from Batavia to Fremantle was f) days.