STORM TOSSED

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 55, 8 March 1929, Page 10

STORM TOSSED

IN THE ARCTIC SEAS

ELEANOR BOLLING'S TRIP

AN ANXIOUS TIME

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post ")

DUNEDIN, This Day.

Fifteen days of tempest and nine hours of calm is an apt description of the trip of the Antarctic carrier Eleanor Boiling. Fighting her way to tho Bay of Whales through mountainous seas, which surged along her whole length, the Eleanor Boiling reached C 2.24 south before she was ordered to return to Dunedin. Another two days' steaming would have taken the ship to the ice pack surrounding the Eoss Sea, and even when she turned back to Dunedin in a howling anow storm only pieces of ice the size of the vessel had been seen. From the Barrier advice was received that the Eoss Sea was freezing over rapidly, and grave danger would beset any attempt to reach the Barrier.- However, the officers on the Eleanor Boiling are convinced that theycould have forced a passage through to the Antarctic continent and reached the open sea again before the season was too far advanced. Although; the Eleanor Boiling travelled only a little- over 1000 miles from Dunedin, the trip was a momentous one. The ship experienced a continuous spell of stormy weather. For ten days on end the vessel was awash, and at one j stage, through the flooding of the after I hold, 3he was so far down at the stern that an increase in the strength of the storm might have brought about a catastrophe. STOP TO SECURE CARGO. In the afternoon of 21st February the heavy swell from the South-west increased, and the ship rolled with great momentum. Shortly before midnight beam.seas were sweeping over the ship and the Boiling was stopped to secure the deck, cargo on the after hatch. This was difficult work, as a strong wind was piping from sou-west, and I the vessel,, having lost its way, was rolling heavily in a quartering sea. Twenty minutes later full- steam ahead was, telegraphed down to the engine room. ,■-.;.. By 4 a.m. on 22nd February, a high sea was running, and the Eleanor Boiling was awash fore- and aft. At 6.20 a.m. another stop was made to secure the deck cargo, and by 8 o'clock the ship was again proceeding south, this timo at half speed ahead. Ten minutes later the engineer reported water in the after hold. The pumps, he reported, were holding back the level of the water. All hands were immediately ordered to clear in the after hatch. The filling of the hold with water was not brought about through any fault in tho loading. She was. loaded down at the stern purposely, for the. passage through the ice pack', but the weatler encountered was more severe than that the Eleanor Boiling had previously^experienced. Heavy seas, crashing over the stern, poured down the ventilators. Slowly and seemingly inexplicably to those on board, the Eleanor Boiling was settling down at the stern, but no water filtered through to the engineroom. .

The first sign that the hold was flooded was the squirting of water from a bolt hole twelve feet above the floor of the hold. The drain at the bottom of the hold had become blocked. The engineer, Mr. M'Pherson, promptly bored holes .inn the bulkhead eighteen inches above the floor, and the water surged out with such force-that it knocked the buckets from the hands of the men. The pumps were started, and in a few hours twenty-five tons of water were pumped from the hold. EFFICIENCY OF OFFICERS. "The Eleanor Boiling was so heavily loaded at the. stern at the time that with a few bad tumbles and rolls, and further mountainous seas pouring on her she might very easily have gone down stern first," said a prominent member of the expedition. A, tribute to the efficiency with which Mr.. M'Pherson, Captain Brown, and the chief officer, Mr. M'Guinness, carried out the operations was paid by a member. Permission has been given for the Alaskan dogs to be kept on the ship for a few days, and a decision will then be reached as to whether they will spend, their quarantine at Quarantine Island or Quail Mand (iu.Lyttelton Harbour). If arrangements can be made Messrs. Brophy and Taylor propose taking two of, the best dog tettms to the Franz Josef Glacier to work them on the ice in preparation for the hard work on the ice barrier next summer. The City of New.York, under her own steam and sails, is now beating her way back to Dunedin. At noon on Wednesday she was about 800 miles off the Otago Heads, and it is not expected that she .will arrive for another fortnight. Plans for the winter have not yet been completed. Orders from Commander Byrd are awaited, but it is most probable that both the barque and the Eleanor Boiling will tie up at Port Chalmers to undergo complete overhaul. . MR. BROPHY'S RESIGNATION. Before the Eleanor Boiling left for the Antarctic, it was known among Mr. Brophy's friends that he had tendered his resignation a3 second in command of the expedition and as business manager. There was no secret about - hi 3 intentions. The resignation, however, could not be released as a formal announcement had to come from Commander Byrd. The commander has not accepted the resignation, but lias granted Mr. Brophy indefinite- leave of absence, which will be spent in travel and business in New Zealand. Already many members of the expedition have received invitations to visit various parts of New Zealand during the winter, and definite orders from the commander are . now being awaited with not a little anticipation. Wonderful hospitality has been shown from all quarters towards the men, and the chief engineer, Mr. M'Pherson, said he would find tiie six months ashore too short a time in which to accept all the invitationa. While the ships are in New Zealand waters forty men on the ice barrier will be making preparations for the long months of sunless days from early in April. Although they have now the best equipment ever landed on the ice barrier, it is not as ideal as it would have been had the Eleanor Boiling been able to reach the Bay of Whales on this trip. The- ice party would have wanted for nothing, as the ship carried tho additional houses, snow tractors, snowmobiles, fuel for the aeroplanes, engines, and also an aeroplane,