HURRICANE AT SEA.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19979, 14 July 1930, Page 10

HURRICANE AT SEA.

CHIEF OFFICER OF TAINUI LOST OVERBOARD. [THB MUMS Special Bwrrlce.] AUCKLAND, July 13. The death by drowning of Mr H. V. Seddall, chief officer of the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company's vessel Tainui, during a hurricane in the midPacifio on July 4th, is reported. The Rotorua, which reached Auckland from the United Kingdom yesterday, passed through the same hurricane which battered the Tainui. The Rotorua had not long passed Pitcairn Island when word of the tragedy was received. At the time of the storm the two vessels were 50 or 60 miles apart. Desperate efforts to recover Mr Seddall were made, according to the account, but the tremendous seas defied every effort. "It was the worst hurricane in my experience," declared CommissionedGunner T. E. Brooker, who arrived by the Rotorua to take command of the minesweeper Wakakura, stationed at Auckland. The waves which swept the Itotorna were quite 35 feet high. Boats were lowered from the Tainui in an attempt to reach Mr Seddall, but the exceptionally heavy seas defeated all efforts. 'Minor damage was done on board the Rotorua by the storm. One passenger said the third-class passengers' quarters had been Hooded, and that they had been compelled to move forward to the smoking-room. There were three days of heavy weather, with the storm reaching its peak on the evening of-Joly 4th. The Tainui sailed from Auckland for Southampton and London on June 28th and is due shortly at Panama.