EVENTFUL VOYAGE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 32, 9 February 1929, Page 11

EVENTFUL VOYAGE

HORORATA ARRIVES

GREAT ATLANTIC STORM

Several days overdue and showing • signs of having passed through exceptionally heavy gales, the Now Zealand Shipping Company's liner Hororata arrived at Wellington late last night from London. Her voyage has been watched with great interest by the coal and. shipbuilding industries, for the Hororata is not only the second British merchant ship to be fitted to burn pulvorised coal, but has completed the longest sea voyage over undertaken by a vessel burning the new fuel. 'The Hororata left London on the morning of'22nd December, and''immediately ran into a terrific storm, which lasted all the way,across the Atlantic. The ship's speed had to be reduced, causing a delay of several days. Early on the morning of 3rd January an SOS signal was picked up from the Italian tramp steamer Kobe, stating that the vessel's steering gear had carried away. The disabled, steamer was then; about 125 miles from *■ the Hororata. Full speed was ordered, and with the assistance of" 'the wireless direction finder which was, installed on the Hororata about eighteen months, ago, she reached the disabled steamer at 7 p.m. the same day. When the Hororata was within about twelve miles of the Kobe, howeyer, her captain sent a wireless message that they had repaired the steering gear themselves and would not require any assistance. By that time the Hororata was well off her usual course, and she made for Norfolk, Virginia, where she arrived on Bth January. After taking in fresh bunkers she made her way south, and left Panama on 14th January for Wellington. Variable winds and moderate seas were experienced across the Pacific, but two days before she arrived at Wellington she encountered a heavy westerly gale and head seas—which delayed her arrival eight hours. The Hororata was fully loaded with generaJ merchandise for Wellington, Auckland, and Bluff, and brought 1500 bags of mail.