WEST COAST FURY

Northern Advocate, 4 February 1936, Page 3

WEST COAST FURY

RONAKI’S TRIP FROM HOKIANGA

[Special to “Northern Advocate AUCKLAND. This Day.

When the Northern Steamship Company’s motor vessel Ronaki, making the trip from Hokianga, was riding out the gale outside the Manukau Heads from Sunday morning until yesterday, four sheep were washed overboard and 20 died.

The vessel left Hokianga at 12.30 on Saturday with a cargo of sheep ami timber, and ran into the storm at 10 a.m. on Sunday, when just off Manukau Heads. Until the gale had abated, she kept well out at sea, and then crossed the bar, arriving at 8 a.m. yesterday. The captain states that the storm was the most severe he had ever experienced on the West Coast. Another of the company’s fleet, the Hauturu, from Picton, struck a fierce gale from the south-west when off Cape Egmont early on Sunday morning.

The strong wind forced solid sheets of water into the air, reducing the visibility to a few yards. Once the vessel was struck by two tremendous seas, staving in the aft quarters and the galley door, shifting the standard compass, carrying away a meat safe and an ice chest weighing half-a-ton, and flooding the decks to a depth of three feet. The crew stated that another sea of similar size would have sunk the vessel.