TERRIBLE PASSAGE OF AN ANCHOR LINER.

Patea Mail, 26 May 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

TERRIBLE PASSAGE OF AN ANCHOR LINER.

A telegram from New York of a recent date says Considerable anxiety is felt among the friends of the passengers on board the steamers longest due, but the agents and seafaring people generally are confident there is no cans efor apprehension for the safety of the vessels. They say it is possible some of them may have their machihery dsabled or are short of coal, and are making for port under sail. The Devonian, of the Anchor Line, from Glasgow, November 18, which arrived on Saturday night, had a very tempestuous passage. The captain says he had ugly weather all the time, and encountered two hurricanes—one on Novembei^2j,, the other on November 23.

only say of the second,” he remarks, “ that in 28 years’ experience I have never known a more tremendous sea or a fiercer blast. On the morning of the 21st it began to blow hard. The vessel laboured heavily in a terrible cross sea; the waves dashed over the deck constantly; in fact, the ship was under water most of the time. In the forenoon the mainboom was carried away. The 23rd was an ugly day. About five in the evening the wind began to freshen, and it took two hours to reach its greatest force. Tremendous seas swept over the vessel, now from starboard now from port. I could do nothing but heave to under bare poles. No canvas ever woven would have held for a minute. One of the starboard boats was stove in, and half of the men were laid up a couple of days with bruises. One had his collar bone dislocated. By midnight the wind settled into a steady gale, and blew frightfully all night. I have seen cyclones in the East Indies, and also hurricanes all over the world, but I have never seen more tremendous waves.”