AUSTRALIAN GALE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 230, 26 June 1935, Page 11

AUSTRALIAN GALE

Monowai Arrives at Sydney on Time REDUCED SPEED IN HEAVY SEAS Colourful accounts cabled from Sydney last week tended to give a somewhat exaggerated impression of the experience of the Union liner Monowai in the gale which recently swept the Australian coast. As a matter of fact, the Monowai, which was only about 450 miles from Sydney when she ran into the gale, steamed through it at reduced speed and suffered no structural damage whatever beyond the breaking of two glass ports and one large window in the promenade deck screen, another being cracked After leaving Wellington at 3 p.m. on Friday, June 14, the Monowai steamed across the Tasman Sea with her engines working at 95 revolutions per minute, equivalent to a speed of 184 knots, the weather being normal until the Sunday morning. At 8 o'clock that morning the ship’s log-book recorded the weather as “overcast, with misty rain and a slight to moderate sea.” At noon speed was eased to 90 revolutions, the weather being overcast, cloudy and squally, the wind force 4 to 5, with a rough sea ami heavy southerly swell. These conditions worsened gradually throughout Sunday, and at 10 p.m. speed was further reduced to 85 revolutions. By midnight a high confused §ea with a heavy swell was running, the AV.S.AV. wind increasing to force 8 9, and the ship spraying overall. During the early hours of the Monday morning, the seas increased in force, and at 9 a.m. the ship’s speed was reduced to 80 revolutions, equivalent to 154 knots. About two hours later—at 10.54 a.m. —tlie glass in two ports was broken when the ship was struck by a heavy sea on the port side, the force of the ’blow being increased when she rolled to windward as she was hit. The ship was slowed down for 15 minutes while the broken ports were securely blocked. The only other damage done was the breaking of one window and the cracking of another on the corner of the promenade deck screen, these windows not having been lowered with the others, which suffered no harm. At noon with the gale at force 9, there was a highmaking sea with a confused S.AV. swell, but three hours later the Monowai passed in through Sydney Heads, practically unscathed after little more than 26 hours’ steaming in the bad weather. Beyond the broken glass mentioned, no structural damage whatever was done to the ship. Six horses and a number of sheep which had been carried in one of the holds were all landed In good condition.