STRENUOUS SEA STORM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 202, 15 January 1913, Page 6

STRENUOUS SEA STORM.

VOYAGE OF THE XAItRUXG. BEATEN" BACK TO GRAVESEND. The following further particulars of the battering the P. ami 0. liner Narning sull'ered during the recent gale in the English Channel are contained in a special cable message to the Sydney Sun: The Naming is safe in port Crowds of people braved the weather to watch a scu-swcpt anil wave-washed vessel limp alongside the wharf at (Irnvesend. She vias in ;i sorry plight. <\n([ it is a marvel how she withstood the terrible onslaughts of the Atlantic. Her port side was ripped open, her hatches stove in, and her decks littered with splintered steel and iron. Her steam winches were a mass of wreckage, and her bulwarks were twisted like pieces of cardboard. The masts were entirely denuded of their rigging, the foremast being fractured in three places, while portholes were smashed in and cabins broken up like matchwood. All these evidences of the titanic strength of the cyclone justify the captain's cry: ''Xow. boys, it's life or death. Don't trouble about anything else." When the vessel was overwhelmed and smothered by a huge wage, 80ft high, her passengers were half-drowned. In the for'ard cabins the lower bunks were awash, and men and women and children clambered into the top bunks. Females were crowded into their quarters for 40 hours, many of them screaming frantically, and calling upon their God, others staying heroically calm. Men vacated their bunks, and did not go to bed until they were assured of the ship's safety. Seven men were imprisoned for ten solid hours in one section of the ship. The firemen stood waist deep in swishing water in the stokehold, but pluckily stuck to their task. Coal was swept from the hunkers, and was banging about all over the plates. Passengers say that the steamer's rail was level with the boiling waves, and she rushed down declivities into the water troughs at an angle of 45 degrees.

Many of the women, attired only in their nightware, paddled up and down the alleyways bare-footed. Food was hardly thought of. The captain did not leave the bridge while the danger lasted, and the wireless operator stayed on duty for two whole days. Neither of these officers had even the semblance of a meal during the trying time. A large proportion of the emigrants on board were from Ireland and Scotland and the North of England. The scenes when they landed were of an extraordinary description. Men were running about on the wharf clad only in their pyjamas.

The passengers were put into a special train to Fencliurch street station, the Loudon terminus of the. Tilbury line that connects with Gravescnd. Most of the poor people were utterly destitute, and a woman was compelled to borrow a sleeping suit and a dressing gown before she could travel. She had sold everything before she left her home, and all her effects were destroyed in the buffeting.

Some of the passengers have gone back to their own towns at the expense of the Commonwealth Government, others' have been taken to a sailors' homo, and the P. and O. Company are allowing them 2s 6d a day. At Fenchurch street some pitiful stories were told. A Manchester woman with three young children and a baby in arms, who was going to the Goulburn district to join her husband on. a farm, had only 5s on reaching London. She was asked if she would still go to Australia, and she replied: "Oh, yes. When is the next boat sailing?" Contrast was supplied by a group of male emigrants, who remarked: "Not for us; we'll stay at home."

There is an excellent opportunity for the Australian authorities to exhibit a practical sympathy that will commend Australia to emigrants generally.