AGAINST TIME.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 17, 21 January 1926, Page 7

AGAINST TIME.

FREIGHTER'S RACE. COAL SHORTAGE. tFrom Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, January 15. Caught by the full force of the gait that ravaged Samoa a fortnight ago, the freighter Baron Maclay entered Sydney Heads yesterday a week behind, time. Mountainous seas and strong headwinds delayed her until it was a race against the fast-diminishing coal supply and a huge salvage bill. At the height of the storni Captain Cameron wirelessed his Sydney agent that be would probably be forced to make Suva, Fi.fi, to replenish ihis bunkers sufficiently to take him to Sydney. But coal is dear at .Suva, and a friendly lull caused the skipper to change his mind and make for Sydney. From then on it was a race between the elements and the coal bunkers. Every now and then the Scots engineer would take a trip below to the bunkers and measure his supply and wonder how far he could steam on bunk boards and other wooden fittings if it became necessary. Twenty-lour hours off the Heads black clouds banked up ominously, and a head swell indicated rough weather ahead. The ship had only then sufficient coal left to make port, and any delay would have meant a costly salvage job against the ship. Every lump of coal was watched as it went from the bunkers to the furnaces, and not an ounce was wasted. But the weather held, and the Baron Maclay made Sydney with only an odd lump or coal and a few buckets of coal dust. She was laden with 0,000,000 super feet of lumper.