AN EQUINOCTIAL GALE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4369, 22 March 1875, Page 3

AN EQUINOCTIAL GALE.

The barometer last Friday afternoon began to fall, and during the night its downward movement became more rapid. Shortly after two o’clock on Saturday morning, the wind, which had been puffy from the N.W., increased to great force. It had been raining steadily from eight o’clock the previous evening, and with the first burst of the gale there was a copious fall of rain. The gale did not surprise those of the citizens who have resided for a few years in Wellington, for the month of March is well known to be a stormy one, being the period of the year at which the autumn equinoctial gales may be looked for. The gale of March, 1874, which occurred a fortnight earlier in the year, will be remembered with sorrow. It was then that the illfated vessels, the Cyrus and the Wellington, were cast ashore at Sinclair Head. Saturday’s storm appears to have been general over nearly the whole of the colony, the North Island in particular feeling its .severity. Its direction varied from N.E. to N.W., the con- * figuration of the land doubtless accounting for the variation. The gale first struck the New Zealand coast to the north of Auckland, where it was from the N.E. ; thence. it travelled southwards rapidly, all the telegraph stations between the Northern capital and Lyttelton recording its progress. On Saturday morning, - however, on the west coast of the Middle Island, it changed its direction, and blew without abatement from the southward ; The telegraph wares between Wellington, Wanganui, and Opunake, on the west coast of this island, were blown down on Saturday morning, but by the afternoon communication had been restored. The telegraphists at these stations, as well as those in charge of the west coast stations of the Middle Island, record the gale as blowing from the S.W.; whilst on the east coast of both islands, excepting at Kaikoura, where the ■wind was from the S.E. (but afterwards shifted during the day), the violent current of air was from a northerly direction. At about three o’clock on Saturday morning the wind in Wellington was very violent. It blew steadily and persistently, increasing in velocity till about 6,30 a.tn., when the gale may be said to have been at its height. The rain from that hour till 8.30 a.m. was very heavy, being very little less than a falling sheet of water. The damage to the shipping in harbor was considerable, though, fortunately, no very serious mishap befel any craft. The vessel moored to the breastwork sustained the greatest damage. Just after the gale commenced the schooner Jessie hauled out to her anchor, which was down a few fathoms' distance from the breastwork. Plenty of chain was paid out, and the vessel was apparently going to ride out the gale in safety. The brigantine Enterprise did likewise. Shortly after these vessels had been secured, the Hannah Barratt, which had arrived on the previous evening from the Chathams, parted her bow-line, and drifted down on to the Jessie. The latter sustained little damage, but the Hannah Barratt carried away her jibboom. She had just previously received a bumping against the breastwork, which resulted in some severe dents being made in her port topsides, caused by the protruding boltheads which bind the* breastwork timber. After getting clear of the Jessie, she was safely berthed alongside the wharf. The schooners Canterbury and Cynthia were lying bow to bow, the former vessel to windward. She began to drag, fouling her jibboom in the Cynthia’s forward rigging, which resulted in the loss of her jibboom and forc-top-gallanfmast, both of which snapped, short off. The Cynthia got off without much damage, and the Enterprise swung at her*anchorage without receiving a scratch. The steamer Stormbird, which was also lying at the breastwork, sustained no harm. At the Queen’s wharf, the barque Anno Melhuish, to which was attached the hulk Eli Whitney, was berthed at the outer T, head to wind. The gale was too powerful for the colliers’ bow springs, which parted, and the two vessels swung round with great force. Fortunately the after lines were much stronger, and the vessels were held till fresh hawsers were made fast to the wharf piles. The ship’s boat, which was moored to the barque’s stern, was smashed to atoms, and the vessel herself received a severe bumping, which is very palpable, on her port bow. The hulk sustained no damage. A donkey-engine and tank, belonging to Mr, Ganna way, which were on the deck° of the hulk Rosebud, were, by the pitching of the hulk and the violence of the wind, thrown overboard. Both will doubtless be recovered at little expense. The barque Malay, which occupied a berth at the lee side of the wharf, was subjected to such a strain as to start the stem chock on the port side, tearing away part of the rail. The brigantine Isabella dragged her mooring irons for over a mile, but brought up in the bay with both anchors down. The gale appears to have brought, in its passage down the harbor, quite a wall of water. The vessels lying at the breastwork were at times almost cast on to the road, and the gridiron, on which the watermen’s boats are placed, Was entirely submerged, a circumstance of rare occurrence even at high spring tides. Three boats were floated off, one of which .was broken up and one sunk. A pair of railway carriage wheels and axles, to which a line from one of the schooners was attached, were dragged oyer the breastwork into the tide, and pieces of timber stacked in the same neighborhood were carried away by the storm. Several small boats broke from their

moorings, and were cast on the beach at Clydequdy and in the vicinity of the Te Aro Pa. The rain ceased before nine o’clock on Saturday morning, the glass began to rise steadily, and the sky cleared, but the gale did not abate sufficiently to allow the vessels at the wharf to commence discharging. By midnight it had almost exhausted itself, and by daylight the water had become comparatively swooth. As the tide began to flow yesterday morning, however, the wind, which still remained in the north-west, gradually rose, and by noon there was a fresh breeze, which still continued last night. I " ,