THE LATE GALE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4870, 26 September 1877, Page 7

THE LATE GALE.

; The gale.of .the.lSth was onei.of; the.beaviest that ever visited the district, andmayberegarded as Lhe first taste of those atmospheric disturbances that usually characterise the periods of spring aud autumnal Equinox..: The former of these is close "at hand," for the sun will cross the Equator on Sunday, next, and therefore we may look during the next week or two' for weather,, more .or. less unsettled, and stormy. Yesterday's gale blew.-uearly dtie S.W., and raised a heavy sea from one end of the harbour to tho other. Between Port Chalmers and the Heads clouds of spindrift were lifted high in the air,> arid driven ;to leeward^ at times quite" obscuring the shore line and the fleet of vessels at the Kaik. : It needed no expert to prognosticate extreme danger to anyone who might be rash-enough to venture afloat sin 3 le handed in an,, open; boat,;-aud fore, when a half-caste .bpyj.nauied..George Adams rode poat haste ; into the,Rort.,shortly before eleven o'clock, and stated,that J.he had been dispatched from Pulling Point by Messrs Carey, and Lewis, settlers, there, to.notify;to the Port authorities, that a boat capsized with a riian clinging-to ifc had been-seer.-on the middle bank off the point, grave apprehensions of loss of life were entei'tainted. The boy said there was no. boat; aboufc Pulling Point.-that" could l«ve in such a gale, and hence he had been dispatched for assistance from the Port.: It was nofc long in being rendered, f or.Captain Densem, of the steamer Iron Age,.at once volunteered the services of his vessel aud crew, and with half a dozen extra hands on board, and Captain M'Callum, Pier master, aud Sergeant Hanlon, of the Police, she was soon steaming down the harbour. "When passing Pulling Point, a crowd of persons ashore there waved her to go ou, and oil she went, but although a bright look out was kept, nothing could be seen of the capsized boat. She was then headed for the schooner Jane Scollay, but nothing 'of: the boat had been seen frcm that /vessel, and the: keeper of the Timaru Bank light ship reported similarly when the steamer communicated;with him. Trie search was kept up till half-past one,; all that was seen being a small. dingy adrift.and the stern-seat bf a boat, arid then the steamer returned to the Port. Soon after, her arrival Captalu Densem received a telegram from Mr North, jun., of Portobello, asking him if he had found his father, whom he', had seen in a half-swamped boat in the lower channel. Later in the day we leceived the following telegram from our Heads correspondent : —A young man named North; of Portobello, reported at the Pilot Station thiamornirig that he had seen his.father swamped,in his boat, and drifting into the channel. They; launched a.boat at the Kaik to go lo his assistance, but the ga'.ewas tod heavy/ N"ortu was going to telegraph for assistance, but seeing the Iron Age coming, he did not do so until her return to the Port. Nothiug has been seen of the boat at the Heads.