SEAMANLY RESOURCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 281, 25 October 1934, Page 4

SEAMANLY RESOURCE

SAILING SHIP IN ESTUARY. The first full-rigged ship to sail down the Orwell Estuary from Ipswich to Harwich within living memory was the Joseph Conrad, commanded by Mr Alan Villiers, whose resourceful action saved tlve ship from damage alter it bad broken away from the tug which

was to tow it to Harwich, says a London message of October 16. A small tugboat was plucking the Joseph Conrad from the quayside, when the wind caught the ship broadside on, driving her stern-nrst into I an adjacent steamer. ' The Joseph Conrad bounced off, and I reached midstream, when the wind carried iier almost on top or the tug. The tug hastily changed its course; hut crashed into the starboard side of tlie Joseph Conrad amidships, crushing the tug’s dinghy, and tearing her stern, before some ot her crew, who sprang to safety on the Joseph Coni ad’s deck, cut _ the _ tow lope to prevent tlie tug being dragged under. , ~ , Meanwhile the Joseph Conrad was heading straight for the concrete pylons at the edge of the water. Mr Villiers, aware lhaf she had not sufficient steerage way to avoid a crash, ordered all hands to set the sails in the nick of time, after which the vessel “ramped” down the fairway under canvas, without a chart or a pi'ot 'with experience, of the channel, , completely outdistancing the tug. Mr Villiers called into the bows two Ipswich lads who were acquainted with the channel, and they piloted the ship to anchorage at Harwich, where she will take in stores before sailing for the Bahamas with a crew of adventurers on the first part of a voyage round the world.