KAIRANGA’S ROUGH CROSSING OF TASMAN SEA

Grey River Argus, 30 June 1947, Page 7

KAIRANGA’S ROUGH CROSSING OF TASMAN SEA

AUCKLAND, June 24

Her poop deck showing signs of damage from seas which crashed over her off the Australian coast, the Union Company’s freighter’ Kairanga arrived at Auckland after the worst Tasman crossing for several years. At times during the voyage the wind rose to 70 miles an hour, and on several occasions the vessel was swept by mountainous seas, which were estimated to be more than 30 feet high.

Leaving Adelaide for Auckland on June 14 with a full cargo of gypsum and salt, the Kairanga was dogged by rough following weather from her first day out. Winds of hurricane force were registered of Wilson’s Promontory, the southernmost point of the Australian mainland, during the fourth day of the voyage, and a huge sea, breaking over the vessel’s stern smashed the teak steering wheels of the emergency steering gear to matchwood, carried away a binnacle and a sounding machine bolted to the deck, and flooded quarters below decks. A scupper plate, a piece of sheet iron about a quarter of an inch thick, which was leaning against one of the ship’s companionways, was buckled like a sheet of tin by the force of the water.

On the evening of the following day, when high winds were still blowing, another following sea swept the vessel from stem to stern, and momentarily pressed her down under the weight of hundreds of tons of water. Although the sea was larger than the one on the previous day, no damage was done to equipment on the decks. Westerly weather continued to follow the Kairanga for the next three days, and it was not until the vessel was two days from Auckland that it moderated to any degree.