THE LOST DREDGE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 12754, 4 May 1912, Page 5

THE LOST DREDGE.

(Press Assn.— By Telegraph.— Copyright.) (Received May <t, 8.10 ami.) • .-■ SYDNEY, May 4, ,' The steamer Kurow had a stormy passage from New Zealand. She kept a sharp but unavailing^ lookout for the missing dredge Manchester. : , SYDNEY, April 26. Captain Benton, of. Messrs l R; S. Lamb, and Co.'s steamer Ihifmata stated that his vessel was, eight days on the trip from Kaipara to Sydney. Exceptionally bad weatner was> met with On the trip. It began to blow hard first froih tne east, then it chopped round..' to the south-east, and \ finally ended up m a whole gale from the southward. There was 1 a, tremendous sea running, And he does not 'think a vessel of the dredge type could have lived lemg m it. He, Knew the Manchester well, i but, although doubtful as to .whether she dould still be afloat, he js disinclined to definitely say that she has gone down. The Ihumata steamed along m much tthe same track as : the , Manchester would talce, but saw nothing either i of the vessel or of any wreckage. The sea, however, which was abeam, was one of the worst he had ever seen, and was pad enough to sink any vessel like' the dredge. Describing the ", weather, Captain Benton said that for two days it was impossible to see more than half a mile aliead, it was so thick. He explains tliat he might have passed the dredge within a mile ( and seen nothing of her. His own steamer, which carried 900,000 feet of timbei-i received a terrible dusting m .the gale. She lost none of her Cargo, because extreme precautions were taken to secure it. All the deck load Was heavily chanted down, and the Vessel would have had to capsize before any of her cargo could have been washed Overboard. The barquentine Volador occupied 21 days on the run across the, Tasman Sea, that is, three days less than the Manchester lias been out. She was badly lwiridled m the blow, immense seas crashing aboard for days together. Portions of her bulwarks were stove m, and a lot of damage was dbne about the decks. This ship, too, followed the track which the dredge was supposed to be on, but saw nothing of the Manchester. According to the skippers, that storm was one ot tho worst experiences that has befallen either vessel whilst m the New Zealand trade. The Union liner Moana, which arrived at Sydney from Wellington on Tuesday afternoon, ran into a strong gale on Sunday morning, and wallowed about m big Beas until port was reached. Her course, .too, took her directly after the Manchester, but, although she sighted three or four vessels, she saw nothing of the dredge. . • Dredges are notoriously bad seaboats, their heavy equipment making them very sluggish m a big seaway. At least two larger dredges than the Manchester have been lost on the Way to Australia. These were the Octopus and the Walrus, both of which disappeared either off the South African coast or between Durban and Australia.