VIOLENT STORM

Inangahua Times, 10 December 1929, Page 3

VIOLENT STORM

(By Kleetrt* XUegrapk—Oopy/lght), (Ana. Prtn Am. aad Baa Oabla.) MANY VESSELS IN TROUBLE. SERIOUS LOSS OF LIFE. LONDON, December 8. Wild gales continue in Northern Fur ope, giving liners bound for Engiisn ports the miost terrific voyages during recent years. | WIND VELOCITY 108 MILES HOURLY _ Die velocity of the wind was sometimes as much as 108 miles hourly. LIFEBOATS OUT Many Channel lifeboats a,re out and harbours arc crowded with damagsd craft..

, ITALIAN- STEAMER SAFE » The steamer, Leonardo Divinci, whii’h bringing Italian art to London for the exhibition, in a wireless message, says she is quite safe and holding her own in the Bay of Biscay against a severe gale. •She expects to freach London on Thursday afternoon. CONSIDERABLE AREA FLOODED High winds caused a raprid rise in the Thames and considerable floods in the Maidenhead area and elsewhere.

CONTINUANCE OF BAD WEATHER PREDICTED The Air Ministry predicts a eontinu an ce of fierce weather. TRAIL OF DESOLATION Channel coasts are strewn with wreckage and seas are lashed mountains high. The wind left a trail of desolation across Southern England, trees being uprooted, including sixteen gian/ts at Hampton Court over two hundred years old. Telephone wires were wrecked and walls levelled. STEAMER SERVICES SUSPENDED Boulogne steamier services have been suspended since Friday and Channel is - lands have been cut off for four days. STREAMS OF MESSAGES PICKED UP Wireless stations are picking up streams of messages reporting damage . and distress. I j SHIPS BATTERED A Tasmanian transport reached Fp.l mouth with cabins flooded and boats smashed. T.he Valaeia, bound froim Antwerp to New Zealand, wirelessed that t-ho ship is unmanageable and has stopped unt. ; J .•the gale moderates. TWO SEAMEN LOST Two seamen going home for Christ .mas leave were washed off the destroyei Walpole between Portsmouth and Chat ham and drowned. STEAMER ADRIFT LONDON, Decembor 9. The steamer Britannia broke adrift, yesterday off Pembrokeshire coast in a hurricane which prevented the approach of: a tug. REPORTS FROM FRANCE French .reports starter — Several steamers are in imminent danger off the coast of Brittany. The Italian, cargo vessel, Chieri, sank •and six of the crew were Tescued from rafts. The Cunnarder ship, Lancastrian, en route to New York, wias struck by lightning .on Saturday. Wireless and other electrical apparatus was disabled. The White Star liner Homeric was hove to for some hours. The promenade deck, which is sixty feet about the waterline, was swept and damaged. The eleven thousand tons dry dock Vulcan, which tugs were towing from Hannberg to Rotterdam was caught in a tempest and broken asunder and sank. Two of the crew perished. ILL-FATED RADYR. The ill-fated .Radyr was the only steamer to put out from Cardiff in the teeth of Friday night’s gale. The wireless operator, 'Meredith, was sending out an S.OjS. when vessel foundered. His was the only body to be washed up. Steamer Volumnia Sinking Two Vestels Standing By . Reed ii 5 a.m. New York, Dec 9 The liner France radioed that owing to the heavy seas and headwinds, it was unable to aid the British freighter Volumnia, and was proceeding to New York leaving the sinking ship and crew in mid ocean with two cargo boats standing bv unable to help. The France’s brief message said she received the Volumnia s S.O.S. on Suuday and went to her, but the sea was too rough for the lifeboats. Alter a radio conletence with the Volumnia and two unnamed cargo boats it was decided, since the France carried mails and passen gers, that it should proceed. The Volumnia left Wales tor Philadelpia and Boston on 15th November, but was disabled the same day aud put back to Falmouth, whence she departed on 18th November.