RESCUE IN A GALE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18996, 18 April 1925, Page 11

RESCUE IN A GALE.

" IT WAS A TERRIBLE JOB." ' \ - HAPLESS TRAWLER'S PLIGHT. TOW OF 400 MILES. Battling for six days with a North Atlantic gale to rescue a crippled Norwegian steamer, the Grimsby trawler William Wesney recently towed the stricken vessel 400 miles to safety. Leaving Icdand with a cargo af 600 tons' of sal*, fish for Grimsby, the Norwegian steumer Gaupen ran into a gale and was battered by heavy seas, her rudder being carried away. She was drifting helplessly when Captain Senior, of the William Wesney, saw her distress signals and hastened to her help. Tow ropes were passed, but so fierce was the storm and so heavy the lurching of the steamer that they snapped like threads. Twice in 24 hours the ropes broke. After the steamer had broken away a. third time, a German trawler joined the British vessel. The seas were so heavy, however, that the Germans chopped their hawser and abandoned what seemed to them a hopeless task, leaving the Grimsby trawler to struggle on alone. When the vessels were 70 miles from the Butt of Lewis fuel ran low. There was barely enough to take the trawler alone to port. Captain Senior decided to make for Wick, and after replenishing the bunkers there and getting new steel hawsers, he set out again to find the Gaupen. The Gaupen was sighted again on March 6—five days after the first efforts to rescue j her—in a dangerous position between North Rona and another uninhabited rocky islet. When the William Wesney got within hailing distance, the Norwegian crew raised their hats as a tribute to tho Grimsby men's heroism. Having given up hope, the Norwegians had expected their craft to be dashed to pieces on the rocks. Lifebelts were given out, and every man was told to look after himself. Tho trawler towed the steamer clear of the rocks, but in the open sea the steel hawsers again snapped. Reaching the narrows, Captain Senior lashed his boat alongside the Gaupen, steering the two vessels as one, und in this way Stornoway was reached. "It was a terrible job," said Captain Senior when the trawler reached Grimsby. "The Norwegians had given up hope, but we couldn't leave them without making a fight for it."