GALE AT TONGA.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 47, 24 February 1913, Page 6

GALE AT TONGA.

HOW THE BOREAX-S CAME TO GRIEF. GROUND TO _L_"_CHWOOD. DAMAGE TO COPRA AND FRUIT CROPS. Further particulars are available by, the Atua of the heavy gale which; -•wept the Tongatahu group of -lands i" : the eariv part of the present month,, bringing "a bout the total wreck of the j American four-masted schooner Boreahs, j on the reef at Nukualofa, and the de- . struction of a large number of cocoanutj tree- ou the islands. ] The gale set in from the east in the; morning of February 6, aud continued to : blow all that and the two following days, accompanied by torrential rains j aud a gradually falling glass. On Fri-; day morning, at 9 o'clock, the schooner j Borealis (Captain Fred. Klintbom), which had been discharging timber from Port Townsend, Columbia River, L.5.A.,. had to move away from the wharf owing to the heavy grinding. She was warped off, -and anchored in the stream i several hundred yard- distant. Sunday broke with mo-derated weather, veering to the north, and a slight rise in the glass, but as the day advanced the gale I increased violence, and by night it was i blowing- guns and raining again in tor-1 rente. During the night the gale raged even fiercer, till by 3-30 a-m. on Mon-1 day it had reached its height, the glass | at Customs Bouse registering 2'.).10, and; then the wind suddenly veered again,! this time to the nor'-we_t. This change] in the wind caused the Borealis to break away from her anchors and drift stern first on to the reef, which she struck i with such force as to drive the rudder right through the deck, besides badly ■ smashing her 6tern. Completely at the | mercy ot the gale, the vessel now drifted; along the reef, and about half an hour after iirst striking she hit the end of the wharf, carrying away a heavy iron ■bollard and everything removal)le, including the Government launch, and smashing her own stern right in. The crew, who had been hanging on for dear life since the vessel struck the reef, jumped for the wh3rf as the vessel rubbed past, the captain being the last to leave her. One or two of them received minor injuries through being obliged to jump at random in the darkness, but all got clear before the vessel went grinding on down the edge of the reef. She continued her career until a pro jecting ridge of coral drove into her hull and held her about, a-quarter of a miie away from the wharf, and here sue rolled and ground herself till by ten iv the morning she was little more than matchwood, and broken spars and cordage, mixed up with the half-million feet of timber that was still in her when she broke away. During her bumping on the reef the kerosene lamps in cabin and fo'c's'le had overturned, setting the vessel afire, and the mass of wreckage on the reef continued to burn till the' Tuesday, when the remains of the vessel and cargo were sold by auction, Mr. W. Cocker, of Tonga, being the purchaser of both, the vessel going for £68 and the timber for £500. The gale, it is estimated by an eyewitness, will seriously affect the copra and fruit crop in the whole of Nukua lofa for two or three years, while or the neighbouring island of Haapai, which received a set-back of three or four yea re by the hurricane of last year, will" a_c be retarded about another year througt further damage to the trees. In th town of Nukualofa itself little damage was done, a few old houses beino- the only sufferers. &