WOMAN DIES IN GALE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 25, 31 January 1928, Page 5

WOMAN DIES IN GALE.

ROUGH HOBART-MELBOURKE

VOYAGE.

SCIENTISTS PERTURBED.

TERRIFIC BUFFETING.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, January 27,

The Congress of Scientists ait Hobart, just completed, had a dramatic aftermath when the returning learned gentlemen, from all parts of Australia, met a terrific storm between Hobart and Melbourne. They were passengers on the steamer Nairana, which reached Melbourne on Wednesday after the most gruelling experience she has been through since running on that trip. On the voyage across a woman passenger, who was sick when she boarded the vessel, died during the height of the gale, while all members of the crew characterised it as the worst storm they had ever experienced. So great was the tax on accommodation, in view of the return of most of tlje scientists, that beds were made up on settees and lounges in various parts of the vessel. The Nairana was rolled, tossed and buffeted to such an extent in the storm that half-speed was called for.

Passengers sleeping on the lounges and settees were thrown off repeatedly. One woman had her nose broken by such a fall, while a huge wave made the ship list so violently that a man was thrown off his lounge and flung down two flights of stairs. Mrs. Susan A. Simpson, of Ararat, was the woman who died on the trip over, the gruelling the ship received being one of the main causes of her demise. There was general relief when Port Philip Heads were sighted on Wednesday morning, and a whole-hearted rush to get ashore when the vessel berthed.