LAUNCH IN PERIL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20988, 26 September 1931, Page 9

LAUNCH IN PERIL.

BLOWN OUT TO SEA. NIGHT OF TERRIBLE HARDSHIP. After a long and what at times seemed a losing battie with adverse winds and seas, a small motor launch, with Messrs. Lance Laver and Ben Roberts, of Newcastle, on board, reached Port from Carrington on the morning of Sunday, September 13. The journey, which normally occupies only a few hours, had taken two days. The launch, which left Carrington at 11.45 a.m. on Friday, struck all the worst of Friday afternoon's westerly gale. It reached Anna Bay at 6 p.m., but wind and swell were both so strong that all attempts to drop an anchor failed. A sail was hoisted, and. before, it could be lowered, the wind, increasing in velocity, had whisked the little vessel well out to sea. A night of terrible hardship followed. At 11 p.m. the Point Stephens outer lighthouse was sighted. There was no hope of beating into port against the squall:? coming directly offshore, and the men decided that they would do best to make Broughton Island, 12 miles north-east of Point Stephens. The wind was remorseless, and, by dawn, had carried them 10 miles east, past the island. The mast had come down, and a. dinghy, which had been in tow of the launch, had been lost. There was no food aboard, and the men were looking forward to a period o£ hungry isolation at sea. Their engine, however, proved sufficient to the task of bringing them back to Brtmghton Island. They attempted to cross to Port Stephens, bat the wind was still too strong and they cast anchor off the island until the Bquall hail b! hi itself out.