A TEMPESTUOUS VOYAGE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 1, 20 May 1914, Page 5

A TEMPESTUOUS VOYAGE.

WHANGAPE FROM WESTPORT I]o WELLINGTON. BUFFETED IN~COOK STRAIT. " THREE MILES AN HOUR AGAINST A GALE. By Telegraph—Press Association. • Wellington.-Last Night. .:• Though less rain fell to-day, the wind was wild and the weather bitterly cold. The steamer Whangape arrived to-night from Wcfitport, after a voyago which will be remembered for a long time !>jr - those on board. The vessel loft Westport at 3.30 pjn. on Sunday, and hod good weather to Farewell Spit. Then sho met the full force of the south-east gale sweeping through Cook Strait. She buffeted her away aciws Taaman Bay, and spent laft night in the shelter of Guards' Bay. The Whnngapn put out from Guard*' Bay at 7 o'clock this morning, and took fourteen hours to thrash through tfee forty-five miles of the Strait, reaching Wellington Heads about 5.30 p.m. White * somewhere abeam of Sinclair Head, t&i •Whangape was in the grip of a Sen* wind of hurricane force, which raised mountainous seas that pounded resietlessly over the laboring vessel. So great was the buffeting, and bo severe the roKing, that four of the ship's cargo derricks were shaken adrift. Two went overboard, and the others are so badly damaged as to be worthless. The steamer .rept up to the wharf at 9.30 p.m., taking 54 hours to do a run usually occupying about 12 hours. Besides the cranes, the ventilators and other deck fittings were badly battered about.