STORM TOSSED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22833, 14 September 1937, Page 8

STORM TOSSED

AWATEA'S EXPERIENCE HIGH SEAS IN TASMAN WAVES 35 FEET IN HEIGHT DAMAGE DONE TO FURNITURE [by TELEGRAPH OWN COERKSrONDKN'r] WELLINGTON, Monday "We are throwing no bouquets to the Ta.sman Sea after this trip," said Captain A. H. Davey, master of the Union Company liner Awatea, when the vessel berthed at Queen's Wharf at noon to-day, four hours late on the voyage from Sydney. The Awatea encountered heavy weather almost immediately after leaving Sydney oil Friday night and this continued until early this morning without abating, the crossing being one of the stormiest the steamer has ever experienced. Furniture in the men's smoking room was damaged as a result of the rough conditions. Unfortunately the sea was on the quarter, said Captain Davey, with heavy west-south-west and southwesterly weather making conditions very difficult. The sea all the way across the Ta.sman was very high and he estimated that on the average the waves were about 35ft. from crest to base. It was definitely the worst trip he had ever had while in command of the Awatea, eclipsing even the recent passage to Auckland during which steel stanchions were twisted out of position. The men's smoking room, situated at the after end of the ship, was twice knocked about, half-a-dozen chairs and some small tables having legs smashed, largely owing to a heavy settee breaking loose during especially heavy seas. The damage to the furniture in the smoking room occurred during I' ridav evening and yesterday morning. Whereas the Awatea usually cruises with her screws revolving at about 125 revolutions a minute, for the greater part of the voyage the revolutions were reduced to about 100 a minute. The heavy seas dropped • this morning when the vessel was in the vicinity of Farewell Spit and the Awatea steamed up the harbour in perfect weather.-

A gyroscopic record of the ship's course, which is in the form of a graph, disclosed that the seas wens almost uniformly bad until she entered Cook Strait.