A FURIOUS GALE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 180, 1 August 1925, Page 8

A FURIOUS GALE.

WAIMARINO BADLY BUFFETED, SWEPT BY HEAVY SEAS. DECK PLATING DAMAGED. (By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") DUNEDIN, Friday. The steamer Waimarino arrived at Port Chalmers this morning from Newcastle in a battered state. A heavy gale, which shook up the American Fleet and caused the Kaituna to shelter at Melbourne Heads, wracked its full fury on tho Waimarino. Hurricane squalls caused cro6s seas, and sent great waves smashing on board. Deck fittings were damaged, some of the plating was fractured, and the living rooms were flooded. The Waimarino, with 6000 tons of coal for the New Zealand Railways, left Newcastle last Tuesday week, July 21, at 10 a.m., for Bluff. The Nobbys were not well out of sight when the wind began to freshen from the south-west, and as it increased a heavy sea rolled up from the south. Next day heavy water was being shipped fore and aft, and it culminated in the ship being hove-to for 24 hours. Under ordinary circumstances this -would have given relief, but fierce squalls came along and caused cross seas. Waves came smashing on board, sometimes over one side, sometimes over the other side, and occasionally they would rush along the decks fore and aft, smashing ventilators and bursting in cabin doors. The steamer rolled and pitched heavily, Sustaining a list to port, which further accentuated this exceptionally violent condition. Even the wireless aerial was damaged, but sailors got to work and promptly restored it. On July 23 the door of the chief engineer's cabin was smashed in and the room flooded. The melee of the elements continued all afternoon and throughout the night. The stewards' storeroom was flooded, the forecastle rails carried away, and ventilators knocked over like ninepins. Storm covers were placed over the ventilator shafts as promptly as possible. It was a trying experience, and uncertainty as to what was to happen next kept everyone at tension.

The weather began to moderate on Thursday, and, a wireless message having been received to proceed to Port Chalmers, where repairs could be effected, the ship's course was altered. The new course brought the big steamer, still rolling heavily, into a, more favourable direction of the waves.

A close inspection showed that the deck plating of the iron decks had been damaged.