A NAUTICAL EXPERT'S OPINION.

Evening Post, Volume LIII, Issue 2, 4 January 1897, Page 6

A NAUTICAL EXPERT'S OPINION.

A master mariner of great colonial experience states that he is utterly at a loss to mtlerstand how the vessel come to get ashore where she did. The only theory he can suggest is that her officers were deceived by the appearance of the sand dunes which stretch between Cape Farenell and Farewell Spit. He mentions that whenever the wind blows from the ■west or the north-west the sand, which is unusually fine, is blown about to such an extent as to obscure the hills behind. On many occasions he has seen immense clouds of what looks to be dust floating about the locality in question, and he suggests that as a westerly wind was blowing ou Friday, the officers may not have seen the hills. He pointed out that the chart shows extensive soundings between the Cape and the end of the Spit, and he says that if the lead had been freely used the vessel would not have gone ashore. Whenever a sand-storm occurs, the water for a considerable distance from the beach is of a whitish colour, owing to the quantity of sand which is blown into it, and even if the land is not observed, many mariners trading on the coast know that it is not far off when they notice the unusual appearance of the sea.