HURRICANE FACED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27274, 28 December 1949, Page 4

HURRICANE FACED

CONVERTED FAIRMILE LAUNCH HOVE-TO for nine hours pa AUCKLAND, Dec. 27. The full force of the Pacific hurricane was experienced by the converted Fairmile launch La Reta, 112 ft in length, last week during a voyage from Rarotonga to Auckland. For nine hours the launch was hove-to, riding the high seas. When the La Reta arrived at Auckland today, her master, Captain D. R. Macleod, reported that the vessel had behaved excellently and tjiat no damage had occurred. La Reta, owned by the Cook Islands Producers’ Co-operative Society Ltd., left Rarotonga on December 15 to spend the hurricane months away from the Cook group and to undergo survey cit Auckland Captain Macleod, who was formerly a Marine Department and ’ ship surveyor at Auckland, said the wind reached hurricane force at midnight on December 18. The sea was heavy and dangerous, and the barometric pressure fell nearly half an inch to 29.60 in. Although she was not sighted by La Reta, the British freighter Wye Valley, bound from, Makatea to New Plymouth, was also ;hove-to in the vicinity and reported a.' wind approaching 70 miles an hour ,