HOVE-TO IN CYCLONE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 206, 31 August 1926, Page 5

HOVE-TO IN CYCLONE.

STEAMER'S EXPERIENCE. KEELUNG REACHES AUCKLAND. En route from New York to AucklanS. the A. and A. Line'e chartered steamer Keelung (Capt. A. McClelland), which made port this morning, encountered a hurricane, but although badly buffeted came through the storms with but minor damage. Leaving New York on July 18, the steamer made a call at Norfolk for bunkers. Four days after clearing the coaling port the freighter encountered strong winds and rough seas. Rapidly the conditions became worse, the wind blowing all round the compass. About midnight on July 24 the conditions necessitated the ship being hoveto, and little or no progress was mads during the next eighteen hours. During this time torrential rain wae falling, and the seas were running very hi?h, big quantities of water being shipped. The decks were repeatedly flooded, but the steamer weathered the storm well, the damage being confined to a number of broken windows on the bridge. At 6 p.m. on July 25, the Keelung again got under way, the conditions having improved somewhat, but twelve hours later she again hove-to. After a further delay of several hours the conditions moderated sufficiently to allow thu steamer to resume her course. Thence to the Panama Canal fine weather was experienced. The cyclone which beset the Keelung travelled in a north-westerly direction over Nassau to Florida. The same storms played havoc with the native boats trading about the Bahamas, a number of lives being lost. Florida also suffered very exteneively.