A TEMPESTUOUS VOYAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 100, 26 April 1912, Page 2

A TEMPESTUOUS VOYAGE.

KARAMEa STPJKES AX ICE FLOE. The Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company's steamer Karamea, under charter I to the Xew Zealand Shipping Company I in the Eastern Canadian service, arrived i ! from CardifT, Wales, via St. John and I Australian ports, last evening. The officers report that the weather throughout the voyage was unusually bad, there being scarcely ,1 fine spoil to relieve the nlonotony of heavy gales and bitterly cold days. When off Cape Race, Xewfoundlajid, the scene of the Titanic disaster the Karamea ran into a field of ice, and was over tea hours in getting cic-4r. Al- j though the' speed of the vessel was re- j duced to t>vo knot 3an hour, the impact ] as she bumped her way through thej I small bergs was sufficient to shake her I 1 from stem to stern, dent thp bows, and loosen rivet?. The ice appeared to grow thicker as the vessel proceeded, and in order to avoid serious damage Captain Clifton made a detour 100 miles southward in the course. The weather "was very cold, the temperature falling to 15 I degrees below zero. On the following ' day. February 8, the ship's quartermaster 1 (J. W. Scott) died from pneumonii, and i was buried at sea on the evening of j the same day, wit-h the customary nauti cal honours. The Karamea. steamed into St. -Toliu with ice and *now two feet thiw: over her deck 3, ri?<rins, and sides. The spray thrown on to the decks by the big sea running froze as it fell. Three houis were spent in clearing, with the aid of crowbars and a steam vrineh, the anchor, which had been frozen to the ship's side. Reports were received at St. John of several 1 schooner being sunk tiv the weight oi the ice an-d snow on the'r decks and rig gin<r, while others were lost through ail . hands being frost-bitten. On the voyage between St. John and | Melbourne, thp Karamea encountered a severe easterly gale, which continued from Cape L*euwin to Cape Otwav. The j trip across the Tasman Sea from Svduey j Ito 'Auckland was also of ft tempestuous j nature, there being no abatement in a . ; violent south-easterly gale, which was j 1 met with shortly after clearing the Srd- I ney heads, till rounding Cape Maria Van | Diemen. j Durins the voyage, Captain W. P. Clif- j ton suffered from a severe attack of i > rheumatic fever, and a call had to be 1 made at Capetown for medics! adrice. j . 1 i