TASMAN STORM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22139, 19 June 1935, Page 11

TASMAN STORM

SHIPS BUFFETED MONOWAI'S ROUGH TRIP PASSENGERS KEPT BELOW GALES LASH AUSTRALIA By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright SYDNEY, June IS Shipping is being heavily battered by a hurricane, which is raging over the Tasman Sea from the south-west. With broken porthole windows and salt-encrusted upperworks, the Monowai reached Sydney from Wellington after one of the roughest crossings for years. The vessel ran into a storm on Saturday evening, then steamed through a 60-mile-an-hour gale until yesterday morning. The seas were so heavy that water poured into all the forward ventilators, which had to be removed and the apertures plugged. The passengers were forced to remain below because the decks were awash and spray was flying as high as the tops of the masts.

Captain Davey said'that at times the forward part of the liner was lost to sight beneath the waves. Two portholes were stove in and two windows, with glass an inch thick, were broken. The Mariposa also received a severe buffeting. She berthed this morning. The steering gear of the Gabriella, bound from Newcastle to Sydney, carried away when the vessel was several miles out, but repairs were completed and the voyage was resumed. From the shore it appeared that the Gabriella, immediately after leaving port, was being badly buffeted. Huge seas are running along the coast, and at Newcastle they reached a maximum when the waves broke on the outskirts of the unemployed camp at Nobby's Half-mile, inside the entrance to Newcastle Harbour. Several huts were wrecked and the residents imperilled. A man, a woman and a child were entrapped in their home and' the water was waist deep when they were rescued. Heavy seas around the Victorian coast delayed inward shipping to Melbourne. Nine vessels due yesterday did not arrive until to-day.

The approach toward New Zealand of the severe storm which is reported to have buffeted shipping in the Tasman Sea during the past few days was indicated by an unusually low barometer movement at Auckland. After being steady all day on Saturday at 30.00 in., the barometer commenced falling early on Sunday morning and it continued falling until early on Monday afternoon, when the reading was 29.15 in.—the lowest recorded since May 4, 19.34, when it reached 29.05 in. The lowest barometer reading ever recorded in Auckland was 28.73 in. in July, 1867. The lowest ever recorded in New Zealand was 28.55 in., at Martindale, Southland, in July, 1871, and 28.58 in. at Wellington in March, 1871. Although the barometer rose after Sunday afternoon it is still low and has been practically steady at 29.35 in. since Monday evening. This continued low barometer is being accompanied by unsettled, threatening weather, although the conditions have not been stormy locally. Sineo Sunday the wind has been moderate to fresh from varied direction. Heavy showers were experienced early yesterday morning and again last evening, with fine weather in between.