SAW SON FALL 50 FEET

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 16, 30 December 1932, Page 6

SAW SON FALL 50 FEET

woman in barque. WINDJAMMER TRAGEDY. The most famous of the present-day windjammers and the winner of six wheat races, the graceful Finnish fourmasted barque Herzogin Cecilie, arrived at Semaphore anchorage, Adelaide, on December 17, after a voyage of 84 days from Copenhagen. She had six passengers, including a Swedish baroness, all seekers of adventure. They were not disappointed. Storms the ship day in and day out on the passage across the Indian Ocean. They were exhausting days for the crew of boys, who were aloft for hours on end getting in tattered sails. In one storm a whole set of sails was blown from the foremast, and jn another the steering gear broke down and the ship drifted helplessly for two hours. She rolled heavily in the trough of heavy seas until repairs were effected. HEARTBROKEN MOTHER. The passage out was marred by a tragedy in the death of a 16-year-old cadet, Pierre Norrian, when the ship was between Mairehamm and Copenhagen. He fell about 50ft from the main yard in the presence of his mother, who was a passenger in the vessel. At Copenhagen the body was taken ashore, and the heartbroken mother left the ship. After having reached the Atlantic the ship ran into a storm which forced her to go round the north of England instead of taking the course south through the English Channel. Bad weather continued until the sailer reached the Bay of Biscay, through which she had an unexpectedly good passage, making up much of the time lost in the North Atlantic.

STORM FOLLOWS STORM.

The Equator was reached in 36 days, and 51 days out the vessel was on the meridian of the Cape of Good Hope, with her nose well into the Indian Ocean.

The Herzogin Cecilie’s misfortunes began in earnest then. Storm followed storm, and terrific seas and winds buffeted the ship continually. The crew had hardly a full night of sleep, resting in scattered hours when the winds lessened their fury. One Sunday, when the ship was flying before a gale, the amidships steering wheel failed through a pinion breaking, and she fell away from the wind, the sails flapping helplessly and the hull wallowing heavily in a trough. The ship was brought under way with the steering gear aft, but it also broke down, and the whole of the crew manned the capstan, attached lines to the rudder head, and, after a struggle, the ship was kept to her course until repairs were made