CAUGHT IN CYCLONE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19135, 1 April 1924, Page 8

CAUGHT IN CYCLONE.

ARAHURA’S ROUGH PASSAGE. LITTLE DAMAGE DONE. (Pita United P®ess Association.) AUCKLAND, March 31. The Arahura arrived from Gisborne at « o’clock last night, six hours late. After leaving the latter port the vessel, without warning, encountered a cyclone, which flung her about like a cork. The storm continued ■with unabated fury till 9 p.m. on Saturday, ■when the steamer rounded the East Cape. Apart from some of the cabins being flooded, very little damage was done. Un Siaturday, at about 4 p.m., the wind suddenly rose to a high easterly gale, which struck the ship like a shot out of a gun. Within a few minutes sea and sky seemed mingled together. The rain poured down in ■ a tho sea rose as quickly as the wind, and feu 1 the next..,few hours the crew had a trying time arid the passengers a terrifying ordeal. Tho seas were like combers on a beach as they struck the Arahura’a bow and broke on board the flooded decks. The tierce wind lashed the tops of the waves and carried the blinding spray high over the bridge. A call was to have been made at Tokomam- Bay, but tho stormy conditions made that impossible, and passengers and mails for that port were carried to Auckland. During the height of the tempest magnetic conditions made the wireless temporarily incapable of receiving or sending messages, East Cape seemed to mark the edge of tho storm area, because shortly after the vessel rounded that point the storm ceased almost with the remarkable suddenness it had sprung up. In one shift the wind changed from east to north, then to west, south-west, and south. When the wind reached the latter direction the black storm cloud cleared from the sky like a curtain drawn away, and those on the Arahura were delighted to see the bright stars shining and the storm fast > passing astern. .