STORM TOSSED.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 64, 14 March 1908, Page 5

STORM TOSSED.

The well-known barque Alexander ' Craig arrived from Melbourne yesterday ' afternoon after one of the roughest trips her Quit-era have experienced 111 the Tas- ! man Sea. Twenty-live days ago the barque left the Victorian port with 650 | tons of general cargo, and until her I arrival here not one day passed on which lvr deck:, wore free ot" water. I'rotu the start she experienced fresh N.K. to S.li. 1 winds, accompanied by heavy rain day after day. Un the ISth day out she ran : into a licrce gale off the New Zealand coast, and part of her rigging was damaged, in addition lo the loss of several .-ails. It was a terrible experience and is best told in the following narrative of the chief officer. Mr. J. S. fetuart: — "We were well io the eastward of the Three Kings when the gale came on," said Mr. Stuart, "bin, it drove us back • again into the Tasnian Sea to the south- ' ward of the Kings. The storm swooped down on us on Friday last (March 6), ! ami in no lime the topsail and topgal- \ lantsail were blown away, 'the gale was | K.N.K., and of exceptional violence, lasti ing lor GO hours, during the whole of which time the vessel was hove-to. There I was a mountainous sea running, and the ■ squalls fere of hurricane force. The vessel tossed and pitched a great deal, and the heavy rolling caused the main topj gallant, ma.-t to snap off and fall over j the side, taking yards, sails, and rigging i with it. A peculiar feature of the storm j was the dazzling brilliancy of the phosphorus on the water. The nights were I dark overhead, but the phosphorus from | the sea made it possible to read on deck. | The sea appeared all ablaze: in fact, it j was too glaring for the human eye to . look upon for any length of time. The ■ phosphorus formed itself into all manner |of fantastic shapes. One patch resemi bled a snake crawling on the water, an- | other a bottle or a rolling pin, and the | elfect was most weird. The weather I calmed down on Sunday last, and we passed the Kings on the following morni ing. and Cape Maria Van Dicmen shortly i afterwards. Light variable winds and I line weather carried us down the coast to arrival at Auckland. Tbe rainfall throughout the trip must have been phenomenal. This, coupled with the stormy weather, makes the trip the hottest in my experience. Nobody was injured, and ,it was a good thing that the mainfopI mast came down in th;> dead of night, , when the decks were pretty clear."