ORDEAL AT SEA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22476, 21 July 1936, Page 6

ORDEAL AT SEA

DOMINION STOWAWAY! FORCED TO LEAVE SHELTER ROUGH SEAS PROLONG VOYAGE [from our own correspondent] MELBOURNE, July j 5 A young New Zealander who arrived in Melbourne yesterday as a stowaway on the American freighter Golden State was five clays without food or water before the desperate need for sustenance drove him from his hiding place. He had anticipated that the voyage would take only four days. On her voyage from San Francisco the Golden State caller] at Wellington to discharge cargo. She left "Wellington for Melbourne on Sunday, July 5. While she was at Wellington the stowaway, who is aged 21 years and was quietly dressed, slipped unnoticed on board. He selected for his hiding place a pile of heavy ropes at the back of the storeroom on the poop deck. The Golden State encountered very heavy weather soon after leaving Wellington, and in Cook Strait a fierce westerly gale, with a wind force of 50 miles an hour, struck the ship. The weather was the worst that some members of the crew could remember, and the ship took two and a-half days to travel less than 70 miles in the huge seas. For part of that time she was hove-to. Whipped by the fierce squalls, tremendous seas poured over the port bow, washing'across the heavy deck load of timber and flooding the decks.

Meanwhile the stowaway remained hidden —cramped and almost exhausted. On the fourth day fine weather was encountered, and the remainder of the passage of nine days was made in fine weather. But the stowaway, who had endured the storm, was unable to hold out for the duration of the voyage. On Friday he emerged from his hiding place, rocking on his feet, and fell into the arms of one of the crew. He was in a state of almost complete exhaustion, but was revived by a hot bath, supplemented by 'ioads of ham and eggs." The stowaway was given work in the galley washing dishes for the rest of the voyage. After the vessel berthed he was placed in the charge ot the police and will remain in custody until he can be returned to New Zealand on the Monterey. The master of the Golden State, Captain Hansen, said that he would make no charge against the stowaway. The man gave as his reason for stowing away that he could not get work and thought he would "take a chance." Had fine weather ruled in the Tasman his presence on the steamer might not have been detected, for the time for the voyage would have been halved.