A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE Graphic Description of a Stormy Ocean Voyage.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 196, 26 March 1887, Page 5

A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE Graphic Description of a Stormy Ocean Voyage.

We have been shown a letter from a passenger by tho Teheran, describing in graphic language the imminence of the danger through v-hich ihe ve?sol passed recently. After leaving Nagasaki the P3ssengors wero aroused at about 5 o'clock in the morning by their baggage fly'lDg about the cabins. The eea was by this time breaking over and through the skylights, and it was pome time before the crew - most of whom were Chinese — could get the openings- battened down. The deadlights were screwed down also, and as tho saloon. and cabins were in darkness save for a few oil lamp? — the ordinary lampa not available owing to the working of the veesol— the feelings of the passengers may more readily be imagined than described. They were reassured somewhat by a message from the Captain, who Bent to say he had hove-to ; but accompanying tlii? came tho gloomy tidings that, in carryjrg the manoeuvre into effect, both lifeboats h^d been washed away. A couple of hours afterwards two othor boats were rendered utelces, cna of thetn being carried overboard altogether. Tho writer records that theEuropean portion of the crew remained thoroughly calm and collected, the China-u-.enon theotlw hi>id "being quite fiabberEjafted." Among the pa&sengera, also, there was a noticeable absence of anything even remotely approaching a scare. Even when, the alarming news came at about 9 o'clock that Ihe coal and camphor in the lower bold wore on fire, the passengers at all events maintained the outward appearance oi calm. Six hopes were at once directed to the hold, and the enormous quantity of water pae?ed through by the powerful steam purnp3 of the Tehsran gob the 3.»mes under shortly bafore noon. The camphor amouHe«*ed, however, and the fire br:ke out agnin at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and it wa«? then that the captain decided to uiiko for the nearest land. At this time tho nind was unfavourable for a return to Fa^&ki, but fortunately it veered round, nvd the storm-tossed vessel was soon in safety. During the hurricane two of tho ciow had some of their limbs broken, and many others were more or less in j urcd. The passengers were without food. for about twenty-four hours, tho galley having been washed out and the storeroom unapproachable. However, a8 the writer rath-;r naively puts it, they "had not much inclination for food." C*ptain Seymour, too, had a hard and anxious experience, for from the time the Btorm commenced until the return of the Teheran to Nagasaki, he only felt the bridge twice, and but for a few seconds.— " Japan Gazette."