AMONG THE FIORDS OF NORWAY.

Evening Star, Issue 9830, 19 October 1895, Page 4 (Supplement)

AMONG THE FIORDS OF NORWAY.

Captain Maurice Plante, formerly of Napier, who served his time with the New Zealand Shipping Company, ia now commander of the s.s. Glen Douhart. Writing to his friends at Napier Spit he gives (says the ' Telegraph') this interesting account of a trip his vessel recently made among the Norwegian fiords : The grand impressive scenery among the fiords simply beggars description. For 350 miles there is a panorama of unrivalled magnificence. In many places the channel is only a few hundred yards wide, and on eitiier side huge mountains of granite tower up thousands of feet above the ship's mast heads, countless cliffs rise abruptly out of the water for a sheer 3,000 ft, their summits crowned with dazzling snow, which, with the thousands of tiny waterfalls leaping down the cliffs and sparkling in the light of the midnight sun, fill a man's mind with awe, and make a never-to-be-forgotten scene. The channels wind north, south, east, and west; you often glance astern and wonder where is the spot where you came through the mountains, and on looking ahead you appear to be equally walled in ; strong hands must be at the helm, as ofttimes you steam close up to a towering cliff, when, in response to a yell of " Hard over " from the pilot, round flies the wheel like lightning, and the ship swings round into some newly-discovered channel, if possible, narrower than the last. After travelling all over the world I know of only one place that can compete with Norway's fiords for sublime beauty, and that is the similar scenery on the West Coast of Otago. Our passage through the fiords was accompanied by several noteworthy incidents. While steaming through the Masso Sund we noticed a small boat ahead, the occupants of which were making frantic signs for us to stop. Thinking something might be blocking the channel ahead I stopped the engines to allow the boat to come alongside. 1 was informed that a yachting party of twentytwo ladies and gentlemen had been "shipwrecked " close to a spot where we would pass, and they begged we would piok them up and land them at Hammerfest, which was also on our way. Hearing there was a pilot iu the party, and having no pilot myself, I picked up these people. The party had been on a pleasure trip at the invitation of Mr H. A. Larsen, a well-known Norwegian shipowner, when his steam yacht was unfortunately wrecked at the place where we picked them up. There were eleven ladies in the party, and we made the poor creatures as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. We landed theso people at Hammerfest, and as Mr Larsen and I shook hands on the gangway he said : " You will hear from " me, captain, and we will never forget your kindness." A few hours after leaving Hammerfest an incident occurred which, I verily believe, put two years on to my life. We were steaming at full speed, and I was on the bridge enjoying an after-dinner cigar, and drinking in the magnificent spectacle of the surrounding scenery, when I was startled by loud cries from below, which, with the sudden roar of escaping steam, told me something had gone wrong with the engines. Dense volumes of steam issued from the engine room, and the chief engineer ran up on the bridge and reported that a manhole door had been blown off the main boiler. The engines could not work for more than a few minutes, and it would be five hours before he could again get steam up. With that he was gone, and I caught a glimpse of him as he disappeared down the engine room ladder into clouds of steam. Here was a dilemma ! The great depth of water made it impossible to anchor. The chart showed 200 fathoms, and my deep-sea lead line showed "no bottom" at 180 fathoms, and this though we were only 100 yards off a cliff over I,oooft high, the distance across to the land on the other side being not a mile. A strong current was running which threatened to put the ship on the rocks immediately she lost steerageway, and the sails were of no use as there was very little wind. Immediately on the first indication of accident I had ordered all hands on deck, and while the chief officer got an anchor ready to let go in the event of the ship drifting into shallow water where it was possible to use an anchor, the second officer was swinging out and lowering the life-boats. Meantime the engineß had stopped and the ship was drifting slowly but surely on to the rocks; with the last revolutions of the ~engines I had sheered the ship into the 'm{ddle of the channel, and now hurrying thft men into the boats I sent them ahead of the ship with a towline, and for four long hours we manoeuvred with the sails and boats and kept the ship clear of the treacherous rocks which threatened us on either side, As I was leaning over the bridge rails during the whole of the four I hours I religiously kept a oigar between my

teeth, but I will confess that my heart wa** in my mouth many times. .However, all flj well that ends well, and by dint of supers human efforts. On the part of the engineers they had steam up again in four hours, and, alter hoisting in our boats, we prooeeded on our passage. - " ,