LAUNCH RIDES OUT HURRICANE AT SEA

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 December 1949, Page 3

LAUNCH RIDES OUT HURRICANE AT SEA

AUCKLAND, December 27 (P.A.). —The full force of a Pacific hurricane was experienced by the converted Fairmile launch, La Reta, 112 ft in length, last week during a voyage from Rarotonga to Auckland. For nine hours the launch was hove to riding high seas. When the La Reta arrived at Auckland today, her master, Captain D. R. Macleod, reported that the vessel had behaved excellently and that no damage had occurred. The La Reta, which is owned by the Cook Islands’ Producers Cooperative Society, Ltd, left Rarotonga on December 15 to spend the hurricane months away from the Cook group and to undergo a survey at Auckland. Captain Macleod, who was formerly a Marine Department ship surveyor at Auckland, said the wind reached hurricane force at midnight on December 18. The sea was heavy and dangerous and the barometric pressure fell nearly half an inch to 29.60 in.

Although she was not sighted by the La Reta, the British freighter, Wye Valley, bound from Makatea to New Plymouth, was also hove to in the vicinity and reported a wind approaching 70 miles an hour.