A PERILOUS VOYAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 201, 23 August 1904, Page 4

A PERILOUS VOYAGE.

SCOW UNA IN A STORM. WELLINGTON, August 21. Captain K. Metcher, of the scow Una, writing from W eliingiun to the owner of the vessel, Mr A. B. Donald, under date August 21st, says:—"Wβ towed >nto Wellington yesterday morning, through being in too bad a state to proceed any lurther. We left Kaipara on Wednesday, 17th, with a fair wind, and through the afternoon it freshened to a strong gale, but the vessel was going along line under lower topsail, main foresail, inner jib, and staysail, lugging about 13£ miles an hour. At e;gut o'clock that nigiit the wind changed from N.E. to West (we were then about half-way from Kaipara to Cape Jiginont). Talk about a gale. I never saw anything like it in my life. We had then set only foresail and staysail, and we were head reaching that way all that night. At 5 o'clock on Thursday morning the staysail blew clean out of the We then set the inner jib, which lasted for about twenty minutes; then we bent a small jib we had on board, and it did not last five minutes. The fore-gaff snapped about 4ft. from the outer end, but we managed to get it down before it was much damaged. We had to cut the halyards, as the seas had floated the deckload, and they were washed underneath. We had to lay-to under the lower topsail, as the mainsail would not have lasted while we could set it. The sea by then was breaking all over the ship. The deck-load started to shift and carried away some of the lashings. Some of it washed overboard, but not much—about 1000 ft. The whole weight of the deck cargo was then lying on the lee rigging and. bulwarks. It carried away part ot the rail on the port side of the poop. The main and mizzen chain plates are bent out about a foot, and I am afraid some of the stanchions are started. We were from Thursday until Saturday without water. The lid \ji the tank got washed off, and must have gone overboard. I would have thrown the deck-load over, but was afraid the sea would break through the hatches, and if that had happened it would have , been all up with us. I am satisfied the Eunice is a first-class sea boat, as I think there are not many vessels on the coast that would weathei what we were in that night and keep off a lee shore. All our meat was washed away, and we could not keep the water out of the cabin. Most of our stores are spoilt, and every bed in the cabin was wet. Not that anyone wanted to sleep, a3 we were all kept busy at the pumps. For two hours after we got into port we were pumping before we got a. »uck."