PENANG'S VOYAGE-HOME

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 17, 21 January 1939, Page 6

PENANG'S VOYAGE-HOME

Mr. W. Galloway, one of the New Zealand members of the crew of the Finnish barque Penang, who signed on at Auckland, in an account of the ship's voyage Home from the Otago Heads, stated that after leaving Dunedin on August 18 the Falkland Islands were sighted 30 days later, writes "The Post's" Dunedin correspondent. For days rain, snow, and hail storms were experienced. The decks and rigging were ice-covered, and it was so cold that the snow and salt water formed soft ice about the decks. Head winds were encountered between Cape Horn and the south-east trade winds.

One day when they were steering by the wind a big sea broke on board, and away went the forestay, to which the outer jib was fastened. Twenty minutes later the mainstay broke, letting the stay slip down the' mast. At the same time the main top-gallant blew out. A few days before the flying jib had thrashed itself to pieces when the sheet jammed. That was only an account of one instance; they had many such.

On November 11 they passed the four-masted barques Viking and Pamir. Eighty-five days out from Dunedin and 51 from Cape Horn they crossed the Line. Next day, December 4, 110 days from Otago Heads, they passed alongjside of the Azores. This was the beI ginning of bad weather in the North Atlantic. After the gale and 120 days from Dunedin they were abreast of the Bishop's Rock lighthouse (December 15), and there they received orders to discharge their cargo in London, so on they went. On Christmas Day they I struck bad weather in the English Channel and berthed at the Victoria Dock after being towed from DunIgeness Point by a tug. The Penang, loaded with wheat from South Australia, was disabled in the Tasman and put into Por.t Chalmers 'for repairs.