SEVERELY BUFFETTED.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 March 1922, Page 4

SEVERELY BUFFETTED.

HUIA’S ANXIOUS TIME. COAL AND FOOD SHORT. SHELTER AT LAST. “The way things were going it seemed dbubtful if we would get here at all,” was the remark of a member of the crew of the small steamer Huia, which put into New Plymouth yesterday morning- for shelter. The explanation which followed did not leave any doubt whatever that the complement of ten men had had a trying experience on the previous two days. The Huia’s usual running is between Port Waikato and Onehunga. This little steamer of 128 tons left Port Waikato at 11 o’clock on Monday morning, on the return trip after having discharged a cargo of benzine. She had no cargo or ballast, but was provided j y-ith about nine tons of coal, which in< the ordinary circumstances would have been quite sufficient. There was a south-westerly gale blowing, and when the Huia reacnea the Manukau bar shortly after five o’clock the crew saw the Rarawa come out en route to New Plymouth, bearing the brunt of a mountainous sea, which at times appeared to the watchers to engulf the vessel; in fact the seas were seen washing over the Rarawa’s bridge. Captain Jackson, of the Huia, then tried to run his vessel in, with what results can only be imagined from the story of the crew. The steamer received a terrible buffeting and seemed to. be standing right on her beam, while the seas tossed over her. One narrator said that while on the bar the water taken aboard seemed to fill everything but the funnel, and the men in the stokehold were standing in inches of water. How they carried on their task was marvelled at by other members of the crew. One man coming up from the stokehold had a narrow escape from being washed overboard. As he got on deck he was caught by a big wave, and he was washed along the deck by the swirling waters. In the meantime the crew observed that the Rarawa was standing by, in view of the plight of the Huia. That the little vessel was in dire straits is exemplified by the remark of one seaman yesterday in recalling the incidents of Monday night. “We thought it was ‘all up,’ ” was his commeur, brief but expressive.

It being evident that there was no hope of getting through. Captain Jackson decided to bring the vessel around, and eventually succeeded in making a turning, though with some difficulty. Oil bags had been put over the sides before the crossing of ,the bar was attempted, and they were used continually until the vessel madtf port. Monday night was spent standing up and down the coast. On Tuesday morning, with no improvement in the weather conditions, the vessel ran for the Waikato, but the bar was found to be dangerous, with tremendous seas breaking on it. It was then that Captain Jackson decided to make for New Plymouth, lie was running short of coal, water anf! provisions. The scarcity of supplies had got to such a degree that they were compelled to broach the biscuits from one of j the lifeboats. The stock of coal was also getting dangerously low. At 12.30 p.m. on Tuesday a course was set for New Plymouth, with all sails set to economise coal. The wind

was still from the west, but by 8 p.m. it had changed towards the south, and heavy rain squalls were experienced from then until midnight. The sails bad to be taken in and the vessel kept on under easy steam until 4 a.m. Tne sugarloaf islands were sighted at 5 a.m., and the vessel made port under sail, tieing up to the wharf about half-past six. As she lay at the berthage yesterday afternoon the vessel did'not bear any outward signs of the perilous journey of the previous 48 hours. The crew stated that there was a mountainous sea 14 miles off the coast, and they were thankful to sight New Plymouth yesterday morning. A fine tribute was paid to Captain Jackspn’s especially at the Manukau bar when the vessel was in a. tight corner, though personally the captain preferred to be reticent as to his part. However, one of the Huia’s complement put the position in his own way by saying-: “We are only on top of the water to-day through the way the skipper handled the boat.” Yesterday the Huia coaled and took jn supplies, and the return voyage to Onehunga will be made when the weather moderates.