FATE OF THE WINDWARD

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 67, 20 March 1931, Page 6

FATE OF THE WINDWARD

(To the Editor.) Sir.—Belated information which seems to settle with a degree of certainty the fate o£ the Windward has only just come to my knowledge. The motor vessel Enton on her way from Auckland to Wellington, sighted, in heavy weather, a white painted ,yawl yacht about 30 or 40 miles south of Cape Palliser on loth January. The Enton reached Wellington on 16th January, and the captain reported to the Marine Department having seen the yacht, which he judged between 30 and 40 feet long. This was undoubtedly the Windward, as every other Wellington yacht can be accounted for on that date. She left Chatham Islands on Oth January, at 5 p.m., and had crossed the ocean against headwinds, and weathered a severe storm, which, according to meteorological records, would be encountered on 12th to 13th January, and when sighted was on a true course, within a day's sail of Wellington. The Enton was five days in port and left Wellington for Lyttelton on 21st January. She has since become a total wreck on the coast of Noumea. At the time of the arrival of the Enton in Wellington, news of the Windward was eagerly awaited in yachting circles and by the general public. And had she been reported as nearing 'Wellington on the 15th her non-arrival within the next day or so would have awakened anxiety, and led to a tug being sent out in search. It is possible that in the heavy weather then prevailing she might, have been disabled and afloat. A search at that time would have beet) decisive either in rescue or in determining the fate of the yacht. The silence regarding the Enton's report may have seemed unimportant at the time. Cut in view of the public interest and subsequent anxiety, and the noble efforts of Government departments to Irncc the yacht, what appears to bo a conspiracy of silence ia incomprehensible. It would scorn now certain that the Windward was lost in. home waters, how near to port will never be known.—l am, W, S, ROLLINGS. 2Uth Aliirch.