SAILING TO-MORROW.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 116, 17 May 1924, Page 11

SAILING TO-MORROW.

—I-—. « - , WARSHIPS DEPART AT 6 A.M. GALE DELAYS THE FAREWELL. HEAVY SWELL ON THE COAST. Such a heavy sea was knocked up on the coast by the easterly gale that sprang up so suddenly on Friday that the departure of the Special Service Squadron of the Royal Navy that had been fixed for this afternoon had to be postponed until to-morrow morning at 6 o'clock. On the harbour last night it Tas so rough that many of the sailors were unable to get back t<> their ships. ! As the sun does not rise until 6.46 to- i morrow morning there will not be a very ' spectacular departure of the ships, but the twilight should enable watchers I ashore to get quite a good glimpse of them as they pass out in the dawn. The men that were marooned ashore last night owing to the fact that the I launches and pinnaces found it quite j impossible to negotiate the passage be- I tween the ships anchored out in the ' stream and the launch landings accepted their fate very philosophically, and several hundred of them that were somehow or other accommodated with sleepinig space in the Y.M.C-A_ building quite enjoyed their enforced truancy. As the fleet has to be in Suva up to time the projected call at Russell will have to be cut out. If the programme had been adhered to the ships would have been in the Bay of Islands to-morrow at daylight, and would have anchored until noon, but the postponement of the depar- j tnre has upset that arrangement.