RIVAL WHALE CHASERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19476, 4 November 1926, Page 10

RIVAL WHALE CHASERS.

RACES FOR COVETED PRIZE. COOK STRAIT INCIDENTS. COLLISIONS OF LAUNCHES. INQUIRY BY NAUTICAL COURT. [BY TELE9BAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] BLENHEIM, Wednesday. There have been some exciting incidents in the race for whales in Cook Strait between the rival Perano parties of Tory Channel. The signal that whales are in the offing produces a thrilling rash to the spot in an effort to secure the coveted prize. As a sequel a Nautical Court was set ap by the Marine Department to investigate two serious collisions between launches while struggling for possession of a harpooned whale. The Court sat at Picton to-day. Mr. W. G. Riddell, S.M., of Wellington, presided, with Captain Barron and Captain Dewhurst as assessors. After hearing evidence the Couft reserved its decision. The evidence was very lengthy, dealing with a collision in which the launch Surprise rammed the Miss Whekenui while the latter was fast to a whale winch had just dived under the Whekenui, so close that the shaft of the unexploded bomb sticking in its back grazed the keel of the launch. In spite of the colision, which stove in three of her planks and cut away part of her deck, the iVhekenui hung on to the thrashing whale, am oilskin being jammed into the hole in the boat to keep the water out. Ultimately, the leviathan was captured. In the othef instance, both launches were said to be 1 going all-out side by side in a race for a whale, when the monster, which had sounded, reappeared unexpectedly just on the Whekenui's starboard bow. Both launches turned to the whale and the Surprise was rammed by the Whekenui, the impact knocking the Surprise's gunner into the sea, whence he was rescued by another launch after both racing cfaft had passed over him. The Whekenui's bows were stove in and only her' watertight compartments kept her afloat.