CYCLONIC GALE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8340, 29 January 1913, Page 8

CYCLONIC GALE

SCOW RELIANCE WRECKED SEVERAL STEAMERS HELD UP AT ONEHUNGA. Press Association. AUCKLAND, January 28. The storm predicted by Mr Bates and other weather prophets made its appoarancc yesterday on Manukau with tho force of a cyclone, and resulted in the wreck of the scow Reliance, owned by the Onehunga Sawmilling Company, on tho Manukau bar yesterday afternoon.

Captain Palmer and his crew had a most trying experience, .being for two hours in an open boat on the 'Manukau bar, and notwithstanding their united efforts they could make no headway, but drifted steadily out to sea. A sudden and terrific squall struck tho Reliance, snapping off both masts and tearing up the deck fore and aft. Tho masts fell right across the ship and were held there by the rigging. All the ship’s tools had been washed overboard, or the ship might have been saved. A few blows of an axe would have freed everything and sent it overboard. The main anchor was immediately dropped, but it failed to hold the ship. The other anchor could not be got out, as it was jammed by spars lying across it. The crew got a hedge and bent a hawser on to it, and put it over tho side, but even that did not hold and the vessel continued to drift outward with the tide until she got on to the north side of the Emma bank.

The crew then took to the boat, and after a narrow escape from disaster were rescued .by the steamer Claymore. The scow subsequently drifted across tho Emma Bank into the south channel, finally going ashore under the lighthouse at south head at 7 o’clock this morning. Three steamers left Onehunga yesterday, namely, the Rarawa for New Plymouth, Hanpiri for New Plymouth ana Wellington, and Claymore for Raglan and Kawhia, and they were all held up by the storm. The Rarawa eventually got out about 10 o’clock last night, but the other steamers had to wait until this morning.