ARAHURA IN A GALE.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3597, 1 April 1924, Page 5

ARAHURA IN A GALE.

STORMS BOX THE COMPASS. TERRIFYING ORDEAL. [Per Pr<*as Association.l AUCKLAND, March 31. The Arahura arrived from Gisborne at 10 o’clock last night, six hours late. An hour after leaving Gisborne without warning the vessel encountered a cyclone, which flung the steamer about like a cork. The storm continued with unabated fury till 9 p.m. on Friday, tyhen the vessel rounded the East Cape. Apart from the flooding of some of the cabins, very little damage was done. About 4 p.m. on Saturday the wind suddenly rose to a high easterly gala, which struck the ship like a shot out of a gun. Within a few minutes the sea and sky seemed mingled together, and rain poured down in a deluge. The sea rose as quickly as the wind. For the next few hours the crew had a trying time and the passengers a terrifying ordeal. The seas were like combers on the beach. As they struck the Arahura’a bow they broke on board and flooded the deck. A fierce wind lashed the tops of the waves and carried blind'ng spray high over the bridge. A. call was to have been made at Tokomaru Bay, but the stormy conditions made that impossible. The passengers and mails for that port were carried on to Auckland. During the height of the tempest the magnetic conditions made the. wireless temporarily incapable of receiving or sending messages. The East Cape seemed to mark the edge of of the storm area because shortly after the vessel rounded that point the storm ceased almost with 'he same remarkable suddenness with which it had sprung up. With one shift the wind changed from east to north-west, and then to west, south-west and south. When the wind reached the latter direction the Plack storm clouds cleared from the sky like a curtain drawn away. Those on the Arahura were delighted In see the bright stars shining and the storm fast passing astern.