GALE IN NORTH SEA

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 45, 16 November 1929, Page 11

GALE IN NORTH SEA

LOSS TO FISHING FLEET ELEVEN DEATHS GREAT DAMAGE IN BRITAIN BY FLOODS (British Official Wireless,) (Rec. November 15, 5.5 p.m.) , Rugby, November 14. The toll of damage done in Monday’s gale cannot yet be fully estimated. The Secretary for Scotland stated in Parliament that a fleet of 600 fishing vessels was struck by a gale in the North Sea and lost 31,000 nets, which will cost £150,000 to replace. It was thought that only three lives had been lost, but the latest information indicates that there were eleven deaths. Many of the boats engaged now carry wireless sets, and the broadcast warning of the approaching storm enabled some of them to haul in their nets in time. The disaster has not caused a general stoppage of fishing, and many boats put to sea yesterday. A Grimsby drifter on reaching port yesterday reported that a great wave had swept the ship, carrying the skipper and two deck hands into the sea. The skipper was washed back by asucceeding wave, but the two deck hands were lost.

On land great damage has been done by floods, notably in the Rhondda Valley of South Wales. A large part of a hillside at Pontygraith gave way owing to the inundation. Yesterday fissures five feet wide and 70 fe£t long were discovered in the breast of the hillside, and a whole mass of thousands of tons of earth was moving steadily downwards. Ten families occupying houses in the direct path of the landslide were yesterday ordered to leave their houses immediately. A record rainfall for England and Wales was recorded at Pontypridd, where 8.3 inches was registered in 24 hours. On the upper reaches of the .Severn two bridges have been destroyed. Heavy losses of live stock and crops are reported from Staffordshire and Lancashire.