STEAMER'S ADVENTURES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17110, 15 March 1919, Page 2 (Supplement)

STEAMER'S ADVENTURES.

CHAPTER OF MISFORTUNES

ASHORE AT MADAGASCAR.

■The first British steamer to carry passengers to the United Stages from India and South Africa since the outbreak of the European war recently arrived at an American port sifter enough misadventure lo last most of the passengers a lifetime. Almost from the day she left a port .in India more than four months before until the American roast was sighted, the vessel .was tossed about in rough seas and tropical storms. Added to the unrest of the elements was a fire on board, which threatened her with destruction.

I The whirl of a tropical storm in the Indian Ocean drove the ship ashore on the island of Madagascar. The receding tides left her well out of die water, and tho steamship, with her 117 passengers, had to wait three weeks for the tides. The sides and bottom of the vessel were so badly damaged when she went aground that it was necessary to pit into Durban for repairs. Here anothci' delay of three weeks was experienced. When about ninety miles east of Capetown a firo was discovered in the jute in tho afterhold. The flames were gaining rapid headway, so the steamship put in at Capetown. At this port another dolay was experienced. Steaming up the South Atlantic, all went well for a few days, until Edward Gibson, of Detroit, ono of the passengers, became ill with influenza, and died after a brief illness.

Two Chinese seamen were the next to add adventure to the trip one morning when they ran with bow:.o knives about the ship trying to kill each other. One of the Chinese, stabbed in the abdomen, died instantly, and the other, whose back had been slashed, leaped overboard.