TYPHOONS HAVOC

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19125, 21 September 1936, Page 3

TYPHOONS HAVOC

IN HONGKONG HARBOUR

WEF.OKED STEAI\tF.R

SYDNEY. Sept. 7.

Wind 131 miles an hour, a steamer ioni asunder and thrown on tlio rocks, and afterwards a scene of desolation on the. waterfront, were, described by officers of the Changte, when they related their experiences of the typhoon which swept over Hongkong on AugustIQ. The Changte arrived in Sydney yesterday. . Gaptain Gambrill, the master ot the Changte, said all vessels in Hongkong Harbour were forced to steam at full speed into the wind and at the- same time to use extra anchors to save themselves from destruction. The Sunning, a large steamer belonging to the Cniua- Navigation Company. dragged her anchors and was driven ashore in Junk Bay. She became a wreck, her lorepart being torn completely away from the stern. The lorepart finished up on the rocky foreshores 200yds-. a wav from the rest of the. ship. All the passengers and crew were rescued without- mishap by means of a bosun’s chair, added Captain Gambrill. The Sunning, a mass of grotesquelv twisted steel and iron, was abandoned. Captain Gambrill said the typhoon loft a. trail of havoc. The wreckage of small boats was mixed with debris of all kinds. In Hongkong itself houses were blown down and trees uprooted by the wind. The Changte, at full speed and with extra moorings, rode out the typhoon.