A PERILOUS TRIP.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2296, 27 July 1880, Page 3

A PERILOUS TRIP.

The Geelong “ Advertiser ” states that a very interesting account of the voyage of the ship Myrtle Holme, from the west coast of America to Liverpool, has been furnished by the captain of. that vessel, to Captain Plcatc, the harbormaster here. The voyage was a perilous one, the vessel having to encounter a series of fearful hurricanes, during which several ships foundered with all hands on hoard. The narrative con. tains an account of an experiment with oil which was used to calm the troubled waters and the results were so satisfactory that the captain of the Myrtle Holme was fairly taken by surprise at the success of the experiment, which was made on the statement published in a newspaper of an American skipper who had tried it himself. When the gale was at its height and the mountainous seas were breaking on board the Myrtle Holme, the captain had sixsmal 1 canvas bags made, each bag being filled with a gallon of oil. A bag of oil was hung to the end of each main yardarm, and a small hole made in the bottom of each bag with a sail needle. As soon as the oil commenced dripping, and the vessel drifted from the drijrping oil, the seas around the oil-stained waters began breaking, and never broke near the ship’s side. This experiment was repeated with similar results on several other occasions of emergency,and the Myrtle Holme reached her port of dcsti* nation without any damage. Only 1.1 gallons of common lamp oil were used in the various experiments. The Myrtle Holme is now on her way to Adelaide from London.