STORMY VOYAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 26 April 1933, Page 6

STORMY VOYAGE

ACROSS TASMAN

i’OllT REACHED TWO DAYS. LATE

(Per Press' Association — Copyright.)

'(Received April 26 at 11.30"a.m.) ,■ MELBOURNE, April 26.

The Wainui arrived at Victoria docks two days late on her voy&gp from Bluff, .having been severely battered in a hurricane. Officers told of the battle against the storm which they ran into soon after they clean'd ills Bluff, and which lasted until they were almost in si gilt, of the Victorian coast.

A seventy miles mi hour gale, and seas that blotted cut the horizon made ii;s dance about like, a cork, avid, at times, threatened to overwhelm us,” said one officer. At two o.’clock on the •Satin'lay aftoiVioon tho sea crashed over the starboard side, lifted a 1 delimit off.-the chocks, and hurled it along the deck, breaking the skylight, and noured down into the engineroom. The .engineer:? and greasers on watch thought that the shim was foundering. A few minutes after seamen at great risk bad rescued .the starbard lifeboat, tyhe' port lifobn-it suffered a. similar fate, and bad to be lashed. The Wainui then hove to for five hours.

Sailors were forced to keep, a continuous watch on six prize horses and a bulk As they were tossed about they bad difficulty in keeping their feet; however they were not seriously hurt.

The Wainui’s master described the* trii> as the worst crossing of the Tasman he has ever known.

Gale conditions continue along the coast, with verv .rotlrb seas.