BARQUE KATHLEEN HILDA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 84, 10 April 1902, Page 2

BARQUE KATHLEEN HILDA.

SENSATIONAL EXPERIENCES

PUT IN LEAKY.

The wooden barque Kathleen Hilda, which sailed from Thames timber laden for Melbourne on the 29th ult.,

put back here this morning through meeting with exceptionally bad weather in the vicinity of North Cape. After loading 500,000 feet. of white pine timber at Gibbons' mill, Kopu, the Kathleen Hilda was towed out to

sea, and started on her voyage for Melbourne, the. weather being fine, and the wind was blowing- moderately from the north-east. When abreast of the Hen and Chickens the following day. the wind increased to a gale, which prevailed for the next 30 hours. Twenty-four hours after the gale sprung up, the wind changed to the southward, and for the next sixteen hours continued to blow fiercely ; ultimately dropping- to a stiff breeze, which lasted until Monday last, when the vessel was abreast of the North Cape. The men had great difficulty in keeping things dry. On Tuesday the gale continued with even greater ferocity than on the preceding day. The vessel was now labouring heavily, and was shipping a great deal of water, the mountainous waves at times seeming to bury the ship. The cutwater sprang a leak on Tuesday morning, and one of the planks attached to the bows, is said to have been torn off and washed away. The gale is evidently the same as that which the steamer. Taviuni fell in with, and which the officers of the latter vessel described as the late end of a hurricane travelling to the westward. Captain Roy, the toaster of the vessel, states that he never left the decks for the three days that the gale raged. The pumps weer manned, and for close on sixty hours were kei>t working with good effect. After the gale subsided Capt. Hoy found thut the vessel had ceased leaking, and decided that repairs were necessary,and came on to Auckland, arriving in port without further accident. This afternoon Captain Clayton, surveyor to Lloyd's, and Capt. Plunkett, surveyor to the underwriters, were conducting a survey of the vessel The Kathleen. Hilda was built in 1891 at South Maitland, Nova Scotia, to the order of the late Mr Donald Ross, shipowner,, of this city. She is a wooden barque of 552 tons, and her length overall is IGft feet lin., beam 34 feet Tin., and depth 13 feet sin. Capt. Frater is one of the trustees in the vessel for the late owner.