TOWED 1,000 MILES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 898, 15 February 1930, Page 28

TOWED 1,000 MILES

LINER'S FIGHT WITH GALE TRIBUTE TO CAPTAIN Three Dutch tugs, the Roode Zee, j Pool Zee, and Ganges, have brought i the disabled ship Jamaica Settler, 7,256 tons, into Falmouth. She be- | longs to the Jamaica Direct Fruit Line, Ltd., and was towed more than j 1,000 miles. Almost three weeks ago, in midAtlantic, in very stormy weather, she j became helpless, the sea damaging | her rudder. For seven or eight days ; she was at the mercy of the elements. \ Magnificent seamanship was dis- ! played by Captain Rodick and his j crew. On arrival at Falmouth, the passengers, who included several j women, presented the captain with ! an address of congratulation and j thanks. One passenger said: We left London last month, and the shii> was rendered helpless about 800 miles out. An S.O.S. was picked up by the Dutch tug Roode Zee, which was at Newfoundland. All the captain could do was to keep the ship’s head to the wind. The Roode Zee arrived on the Monday week after the accident, and it took her 12 hours to get a rope on board. She towed us for 27 hours, when the hawser parted. A second rope also parted. Then we were overtaken by a succession of hurricanes They were so had that the Roode Zee had to run before them. She got 150 i miles away from us. She reappeared ! with better weather, but a third rope parted. A second tug, the Pool Zee, was dispatched from Falmouth, but the weather was so bad that, it took her

nearly a fortnight to reach us. She tried to tow us. Then a fourth hawser snapped. Eventually the third tug. the Ganges, came to our aid, and as the weather moderated, better progress was made. Captain Rodick is a native of Salcombe, Devon.