STORMY PASSAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 April 1938, Page 8

STORMY PASSAGE

AWATEA FIGHTS THROUGH WILD WEATHER. PROVED AS FINE SEABOAT. By Telegraph.—Press Association. AUCKLAND. This Day. With salt from spray on her hull and funnels, the Awatea arrived at about seven o’clock this morning, a day late from Sydney. Her log is a record of one of the most tempestuous crossings ever experienced. Captain Davey said that before the ship cleared Sydney Heads on Friday evening, a Manly ferry boat dipping her bows under water was an indication of what was ahead. Clearing the Australian coast, the Awatea ran into a south-east gale, which later veered to the east. Visibility was poor and there was a high head sea. The weather was just as bad on Saturday and Sunday and at reduced speed the Awatea plugged into big seas and violent squalls. On Saturday afternoon she shipped a precipitous sea forward which smashed on the forecastle head, and damaged a bulwark head and the starboard side of the breakwater, carried away spurling pipe covers and capstan gratings and smashed three windows on the bridge, 65 feet above water level. The Awatea was then slowed down and the crew were soon busy effecting repairs. Fierce squalls continued all the way to the New Zealand coast, but when the ship was passing the Three Kings last evening, the weather moderated. There were few outward signs, when the Awatea berthed this morning of what she had gone through. Passengers agreed that the Awatea had come through well, proving herself a splendid seaboat.