PREVIOUS EXCITING EXPERIENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 21 September 1909, Page 1

PREVIOUS EXCITING EXPERIENCE.

A sensational adventure, which hap- t pened four years ago to the French barque Gael, is recalled by the disaster to that vessel. Early in June, 1905, the v Gael loaded a cargo of ore at Port Pirie, t and set sail from that port for Ant- c werp direct. She had, however, not j pi-ocaeded far on her voyage when a , fcarfnl storm arose, which played sad hnvoc with the vessel. Ore is the l "deadest" freight a ship can carry, and - she showed no buoyancy. Her decks ' were swept by prodigious seas, and she 1 lurched and laboured greatly. After giv- j ing one especially heavy lurch the barque f v;as unable to right herself, and it was £ apparent that her cargo had seriously shifted. The situation had by this time grown alarming, and the master ] of tha barque fearing that to continue ' his voyage would be to court disaster, c shaped a course back towards the South j Australian ,ccast, ultimately reaching s Port Adelaide without further incident. { There an examination disclosed that ,in addition to the cargo having shifted, the J vessel had broken several of her frames, . and susained other structural injury, 1 which necessitated her beins floated into , dry dock for repairs. As this could not ( be done in Adelaide, it was decided to send the barque to Melbourne for the purpose the well-known tug Wato being commissioned to tow her round the s ccast. Both vessels had an extremely i rough and exciting trip from the South j Australian port, strong gales and high s -ess prevailing throughout. Upon the i arrival of the barque she was berthed alongside the Port Melbourno Town Pier and all her car<?o was discharged. Sub- 1 sequently she entered dry dock, and had ] all necessary repairs- effected, when her . carao was again placd on board, and fehe made another start on her long voyage to the Continent. Strangely enough, in _ the meantime, another French barque • named Jacobsen was compelled to put i into Hobson's Bay under precisely simi- i lar circumstances. She, too, had left ] Port Pirie for Antwerp with a full car- , go of ore, but had hardly cleared land , off Cape Otway when she encountered turious storms and immense seas. In one terrific lurch which the vessel gave her i caTgo shifted, whereupon the captain de- s termined to run for. the nearest port, , which happened to be Melbourne, ratii- , er than rfek disaster by continuing the voyage. Like the Gael, the Jacobseu ' was, upon arrival here found to have broken some of her frames, and it was i deemed necessary that she should under- i go repairs and have her cargo properly . re-stowed before again venturing- out to sea. ] _ -. ■ ' — — - |