BATTERED BY GALE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18089, 16 May 1933, Page 11

BATTERED BY GALE

BRITISH FLYING-BOATS I NEW ZEALANDER A PILOT ONE -MACHINE WRECKED Late in February a terrific blizzard, considered to be the worst in 50 years, swept the British Isles. Iwo giaiit Air Force flying-boats were caught in the storm and were forced down on the Welsh coast, where they received a terrific pounding, one of them ultimately being completely wrecked, while the other was badly strained. A pilot on one of the flying-boats was Flying-Officer F. R. Newell, son of . Mr. and Mrs F. T. Newell, of New Plymouth, and in a letter he tells a thrilling story of the storm and the wreck of the machines. Orders came that three flying-boats were to fly from Stranraer to Pembroke, in south Wales. Two were to proceed via the Isle of Man and Liverpool, while the other was to fly via Ireland. "The two flying-boats set ofi in gorgeous weather,” writes Flying-Officer Newell. "\Ve flew on down the coast of Wales, and when we were just- south of Anglesey we ran into a terrific snowstorm. Thinking it was merely a shower, we kept on until it was impossible to see anything. We followed the coast for a few more minutes until _thiitgs got so bad that the machines / were forced to land on the sea. It snowing for half-an-liour or fc'-so, and when it temporarily- cleared we found ourselves in a small buy. Our flight-commander went ashore and made inquiries as to its safety as an anchorage, and, finding ,it all right, it was decided to anchor for the night.

GALE AND SNOWSTORM “The other flying-boat tied up a buoy, while we dropped our anchor. Two of us from each boat went ashore and had a meal, then going on board again to relieve the others. At 2 a.in. we were in turn relieved. We were aroused by a fellow-pilot at about 5.30. He reported that our boat had dragged and- was on the rocks. We ‘turned out,’ and what a storm was on! There was a howling gale. The seas were tremendous, and to cap it all it was snowing. We spent the next half-hour standing up to our knees in water trying to keep our boat off the rocks while the engines were started. Finally they were got going. Four men climbed on board and they staggered out into the bay in an attempt to weather the storm. * “In the meantime the other machine was still holding at its moorings, but was getting .a terrific pounding from the seas. Finally, at 11 a.m., the flight commander signalled to the men on board her to leave the moorings and try to beach the boat before she broke np.,i They did so, but she was obviously doomed, for the seas had started breaking over her. We watched helplessly from the beach. It was too rough even to launch a lifeboat. The machine broke up almost immediately . and we did not have much hope for the three fellows oil board, but miraculously the boat turned on her side and floated toward the shore. She was finally washed up on the rocks, with i two men clinging to her. The other Lfnan was in the sea. All three were , wearing life-jackets, hut the water was intensely cold. Two of us waded out up to our armpits and picked up the man in the sea, while the others got safely ashore.

MACHINE SUCCESSFULLY .BEACHED

“Our own machine was still battling away in the hay, completely out. of sight in the snow and rain. Just before noon they beached her whole, although knocked about, but with the crew all safe. They had put up a marvellous show,, for they had been out in the roaring sea for six solid hours, just sitting tight and trying to ride out the storm. How the machine held together is a miracle, for she got a terrific battering. “After this there was nothing else to do except salvage our suitcases arid get into dry clothes. Later we received instructions that botli machines had to be completely dismantled. That meant all hands and the cook on the the job, and we worked like niggers.”' The party arrived back at Calshot a week late, none the worse after its gruelling experience.