A STORMY PASSAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 259, 9 November 1901, Page 4

A STORMY PASSAGE.

™g, TWO MEN SWEPT OVERBOARD. SYDNEY, November l. The four masted barque Crocodile, ■ from Liverpool, was towed into Port Jackson yesterday, and reported a stormy passage across the Southern Ocean. She is a barque of 2424 tons, commanded by Captain Wilson. The barque, being" staunch and well found,' managed to come through the stormy weather without injury, but the captain reports the loss of two of the crew as a result of the rough experience. The Crocodile had founded the ' Cape, and was crossing the Southern Ocean on the parallel of 39 degrees south, when she was beset bj r violent north north-east to west and south-1 west gales. The storms accom- ''■ panied jby tremendous ocas, which broke on board without let or hindrance and kept the decks in a chronicstate of flood. All, however, w-ent well until 9 a.m. on the 7th ult., in latitude 39 degrees south, longitude j GS degrees east. On that date the ship was running in a violent gale, when a big sea swept her decks, carrying overboard the carpenter, Isaac Jones, aged 57 years, a native j of Liverpool, a.nd an able seaman j named Robert Frazer, aged 27 years, | belonging to Greenock. They were engaged fixing a ventilator on deck when the wave swept them overboard. No one saw the accident, but they were missed soon after, and the wild state of the weather prevented anything being done for them. To have launched a boat in the heavy j sea would, the captain says, \ have resulted in further loss of life, and there was nothing for it but to keep the vessel on her course. Another incident of the voyage occurred off Cape Otway on the 27th ult., when an able seaman named John Regan died suddenly from heart disease. The Crocodile was 103 days on the passage from Liverpool, crossing the Equator 34 days out and rounding the Cape of Good Hope 64 days out.