NO SIGNALS SEEN

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 304, 19 September 1936, Page 12

NO SIGNALS SEEN

Joseph Conrad’s Visit off Pencarrow The statement made by Mr. Dennis Ussher, of Timaru, who recently made a voyage of 10,000 miles on the Pacific in the-ship Joseph Conrad, that that vessel, when she arrived off Pencarrow Head last May, signalled for a tug and no response was made, is denied by the Wellington Harbour Board’s officials. When the Joseph Conrad first appeared in sight of;Beacon Hill signal station she stood in close-hauled on the port tack for Pencarrow Head. The signalman at once notified the harbourmaster that the ship was in sight, and he, accompanied by the board’s general manager, motored out to Beacon Hill to watch the unusual sight of a. full-rigged ship under sail. The Joseph Conrad was closely observed through powerful telescopes by them and by the signalman, but no signal was made by the ship. She stood in until she was about two miles off Pencarrojv, and then squared away and passed out of sight beyond Baring Head.

At no time was any signal seen from Beacon Hill, though the harbourmaster was ready and willing to send out a pilot and a tug immediately they were asked for.

No mention of a signal for a tug was made by Captain A. J. Villiers, owner-master of the Joseph Conrad, ir a letter received by the harbourmaster some weeks later from Tahiti. Captain Villiers, describing his arrival off Pencarrow, merely said: “I meant to put in at Wellington that day I was off the Heads, but the wind was funnelling with strength right out of the harbour, and I could not make it, so I went on. . . .”