LASHED BY STORM.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 123, 26 May 1928, Page 12

LASHED BY STORM.

RIMUTAKA'S EXPERIENCE.

OOMSID£RABL£ DAMAGE.

the decks stripped.

(By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.")

WELLINGTON, Friday.

When the New Zealand Shipping Company's steamer Rimutaka crawled into Wellington Harobur yesterday, she was a battered ship, but she was the victor of a battle with a terrific storm in the Pacific. For forty-eight hours she fought against mountainous seas, the waves at times being over thirty feet high. Crossing the Atlantic, and entering the Pacific the Rimutaka had good weather, but on May 14, off Rapa island, a long heavy swfcll set in from the south-east, and within twenty-four hours the glass dropped from 30.11 to 28.99. Dashing against the sides of the vessel and over the stern tho seas tore lifeboats from their lashings, flooded cabins and corridors, and Smashed railings and skylights, while a wind which had reached a velocity of seventy-five miles an hour drew a howling wail from the stays and rigging. Often the main deck rails were under water. Water poured into the saloon galley, extinguishing the fires. During the two hours when the storm was at its height, waves which swirled along the whole length of ship, smashed gangways, twisted 3in pipes as though they were made of copper wire, burst through staunch doors, and threw lifeboats about like corks, eventually whipping them over the side. The main deck was stripped of all movable objects. Not a ladder from the saloon deck to the main dec kwas left in position. Torn from their sockets deck ladders were washed overboard, and rafts on top of the officers' quarters were thrown and splintered to matchwood. Damaged instruments, a tangled mass of wires, and streams of sulphuric acid were seen in the wireless room, and the receiving apparatus was out of action for over three hours. There were no lights, for the dynamos were under water. Floundering about in the darkness, the engineers stuck gamely to their posts for hours, while torrents of furious water swirled down on to them. At times the spray drenched the upper bridge, forty feet above the water line. For sixteen hours the Rimutaka was hove to, and throughout the terrifying forty-eight hours the commander, Captain Hemming, except for two short oeriods, remained on the bridge drenched to the skin. But for his excellent seamanship the damage would have certainly been greater, and there might "ven have been loss of life.

Every now and then the propellora were out of water, and the engines raced ■""or thirtv-six hours the engineers were without sleep. After twentv-eisrht hours *he starboard engine became disabled and steering then became both difficult: and dangerous.

The Rimutaka i« twentv-eitfht years and Cantain Hemming has been in -ommand of her for eighteen years.