STORMY PASSAGE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 300, 15 September 1937, Page 6

STORMY PASSAGE

Kaiwarra Arrives From

Newcastle

HEAVY WEATHER IN THE TASMAN SEA Deeply loaded with a full cargo of 4300 tons of coal, the Union Company’s steamer Kaiwarra arrived at Wellington from Newcastle during the forenoon yesterday after a very stormy passage across the Tasman Sea. The Kaiwarra left Newcastle at 5.40 o’clock last Thursday morning and late that night was labouring in a high, confused sea raised by a strong northwest gale, which blew from that quarter until Saturday, when it veered to the south-west. The vessel, being deeply laden, rolled and laboured heavily in a high quarterly sea, her decks being continuously awash. Apart from the loss of the light wooden screen, across the fore-part of her bridge-deck, which was smashed by a heavy sea, the ship sustained no damage. Like the Awatea which arrived here on Monday, the Kaiwarra carried the bad weather all the way across the Tasman Sea. Conditions improved considerably after the ship passed Farewell Spit at midnight on Monday, and she arrived in the harbour shortly before 11 o’clock yesterday morning. The Kaiwarra has completed a quick round voyage to Newcastle and back of less than 12 days. She left Wellington at 6.30 p.m. on September 2. in ballast, for Newcastle, where she arrived five days later. After loading a full cargo of coal she left the New South Wales port early last Thursday morning and, despite the stormy weather, made the passage back to Wellington in five days four hours, at an average speed of 10 knots.