TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6543, 27 February 1928, Page 4

TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE

650 PASSENGERS’ PERIL. Passengers who braved the terrors of the Channel while tho gale was at its height will long remember their experience, says a London paper. Tho worst ordeal was that under: gone by 650 people on tho Southern Railway steamer Engadine, during the voyage from Boulogne to Folkestone. They reached England, exhausted after a terrible buffeting. Nearly every passenger was ill. In mid-Channel the gale, tore off the hatches on tho bow of tho vessel, and the Engadine shipped a big; wave, which poured down into the -forehold. The force of water burst the bulkhead of tho first-class women’s saloon. This compartment was filled with women and children when the sea rushed in. Terrified women screamed; some fainted, some who had been lying down wore flung on the floor in tho water, one was carried the length of the saloon, and for a few moments there was almost a panic. It was foared that -worse was to follow. Some women and children, sobbing and hysterical, clung to one another. The heroine of the moment was Mrs Taylor, a stewardess, who promply assured the frightened people that tho worst was over and that they were in no roal danger. Her assurances and calm behaviour restored confidence, Mrs Taylor was credited by the passengers with saving the life of a baby. Tho child had been placed on a couch near the bulkhead, but the stewardess took it up and put it in another part of the, saloon. If it. had- remained where it was at first the baby would probably have been killed when the bulkhead collapsed. One of the women passengers who was in the saloon declared:' “I have crossed tho Channel on many occasions in rough weather, but I have never known such a terrible crossing before. The steamer seemed to shudder as tho groat wave struck it. We were buffeted this way and that, and the boat went over from side to side at alarming angles. When the water came into the saloon many of us were drenched. •It was marvellous that no one was hurt.” Mrs Taylor, whose home is in Dover,; stated; “It was the worst experience I have ever had as a stewardess in a Channel boat. When the water poured in I did everything I could to assure tho women there was no cause for alarm, and I managed to quieten them. ’ ’