FIERCE GALE.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19813, 28 December 1929, Page 12

FIERCE GALE.

CABLE REPAIR SHIP SEVERELY BUFFETED. (THB PRESS Speetsl Service.] AUCKLAND, December 27. Mountainous seas, which washed the decks both fore and aft and gave the crew a particularly trying time, were experienced by the cable repair ship Iris, which returned to Auckland this morning after an absence from port of fifteen days. The vessel, which has been repairing faults in what was formerly the Eastern Extension Company's cable at a point approximately 240 miles west of Wellington, and 125 miles from Cape Farewell, received a severe buffeting. The Iris left Auckland on December Uth, and arrived at the position of the fault two days later. A commencement was made with the repairs, the cable being picked up after two hours' grappling. During the course of the operations, the weather became dirty, and it was found necessary to buoy the cable ends and to abandon the work until it moderated. High seas and north-westerlv gales, however, prevailed right up till December 19th, and the Iris, lying hove to, received the full intensity of the weather. When the weather improved, the task of repairing the cable went ahead quickly, and the last of the 24 miles of new lengths was laid at 8 o'clock on Christmas morning. Except for twelve hours, constantgales prevailed and the seas were enormous. An indication of the buffeting the cable ship received is given in the following extract from the log hook, made nt midnight on December 22nd: "Heavy westerly gale and high seas, frequent squalls of hurricane intensity accompanied by rain." This morning the crew were glad to be back in port after their unexpectedly prolonged trip. One officer remarked that he had never seen seas to equal those which were encountered, while a member of the crew said that so fierce was the gale that no one ventured to the bows of the Iris for three whole da vs. Waves broke over the vessel continually, and seemed to meet midway between bow and stern.