A THRILLING EXPERIENCE

Evening Star, Issue 18334, 23 July 1923, Page 10

A THRILLING EXPERIENCE

SCOW LENA’S REMARKABLE ADVENTURE.

A marvellous story of an adventure in the recent gale is supplied by a correspondent at Omaha (says the" Auckland

‘ Slav ’). During the gale on the coast the scow Lena, with two men aboard, was anchored at the Great Barrier. She was well loaded with firewood, and commenced to drag anchor, although they had fortyfive fathoms of chain out. The captain decided to make for Maori Bay for shelter, but the staysail blew out, and the scow quickly drifted off shore. This was at 6 p.m., and soon they were in the full force, of the gale. The steering gear became jammed, and the heavy seas broke the iron bands of tho rudder. Steering was impossible, and the small scow was completely at the mercy of tho waves. About thirty tons of firewood were thrown overboard to lighten the vessel; she was headed to die wind, and drifted in tho blackness. Neither land nor light could be seen. At 5 n.m. on Sunday she struck a rock, but only slightly damaged the centre-board. The next sea earned tiu vessel on to a sandspit, but the rising lido once more swept her on, and the next minute they realised they were in smooth water.

The sco.v had drifted about twenty-five miles during the night, and had miraculously entered the Big Omaha. Harbour without mishap. When one considers that the vessel might have been driven ashore on any part of tho broken coastline from, say, Mangawai to Kawau Island, and that she so marvellously negotiated the narrow channel between the sanclspit and Hie rocky shore of Ti Point—well, it is nothing short of a miracle. As the captain said: “it was one chance in 10,000, and wo got it.”

THE INVENTOR of the Safety Pin made a fortune. He sold his idea and got a fair share of the profits by PROTECTING HIS EIGHTS. There are mors fortunes waiting for the inventors of simple commercial devices. Come to us with your idea. We advise and secure Patent Rights.— HENRY HUGHES, LTD., Patent Attorneys, 157 Featherston street, Wellington. Local Agents: J. H. Thompson, A.M.P. Buildings, Dunedin.