THROUGH TERRIFIC SEAS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 662, 14 May 1929, Page 11

THROUGH TERRIFIC SEAS

Tofua’s Stormy Passage From Fiji HOVE-TO FOR THIRTY HOURS TWENTY-FOUR hours behind schedule the Union Company’s Island passenger steamer Tofua returned to Auckland shortly after noon today from the Western Pacific Islands. With companion-ladders smashed and a boat on the port side stove in, together with the after mooring telegraph wires carried away, the Tofua shows signs of the terrific gale the vessel encountered on her trip from Si’va to Auckland.

According to Captain Duncan McDonald, the master of the Tofua, this trip was the worst that he has experienced on the Island running. Suva was left at 2.30 p.m. last Thursday, and good weather was experienced until midnight Saturday, when she ran into a south-easterly gale with mountainous seas running. Speed was reduced and from 5 p.m. on Sunday until 11 p.m. last ever»?ng the Tofua was hove-to. Conditions then moderated, and the vessel continued on her course. Although the gale had moderated, big seas were still running until the Tofua passed Tiri this morning. Passengers on board speak very highly in praise of Captain McDonald's seamanship. They say that he was on the bridge from Saturday evening until arrival in the stream at Auckland. Big seas continually swept the vessel and several cabins were consequently flooded out. Except for damage on deck, no other damage was done to the vessel. Everything on the ship was lashed down, including two motor-cars which their owners had brought, intending to tour New Zealand by car. Canvas was ripped like paper by the force of the gale,- and the torrential rains made the two last days of the trip still more violent. One man stated that he bad made seven trips to and from the islands, but he had never experienced anything like the force of the gale and the heavy seas on Sunday and Monday. Every passenger on the Tofua paid tributes to the seamanship of Captain MacDonald and to the members of the crew. They had done everything possible to make the passengers as comfortable as possible. “The noises were terrible. I never thought I would ever see my husband again,” said Mrs. T. J. Cole, an Aucklander who returned from the round trip. “Mountainous seas were running and the whole of the ocean seemed to

be boiling. The waves were a mass of white.” rMs. Cole was supported in her statements by Mrs. M. TLiid. another Auckland passenger. Moet of the passengers kept to their cabins and on Monday only eight people went down to meals. FLOATING LUGGAGE Mrs. M. A. Lawrence, a visitor from Boston, had a most unenviable time. At 7.30 o'clock last evening the porthole of her cabin was stove in and the cabin flooded. Both Mrs. Lawrence and her sister. Mrs. Saunders, who was sharing the cabin, were drenched while lying in their bunks. The glass of the porthole was smashed to pieces, and Mrs. Lawrence was slightly cut on one hand. It was fortunate, she said, that her face was not cut badly. All the luggage in the cabin was floating about in water and Mrs. Lawrence stated this afternoon that all her clothes were completely ruined. During tbe worst of the gale tables and chairs in the music-room on the top deck were hurled about and today, when the ship berthed, the carpets were still soaked. startling incident “In the height of the storm many of us received a bad scare when the siren began blowing loudly and continuously,” said Mr. E. H. Scott, a Sydney architect. “I was in the smoking room at the time and a big sea had just struck the ship which was pitching at a terrific angle. “The last time I had heard a siren blown like that was when we were torpedoed during the war, so I can tell you it mawe me sit up. “It turned out afterwards that the wireless gear on the mast had been blown down and a portion of it had become entangled in the rope that controlled the ship’s siren. It was three minutes before the lever could be released and the sound stopped.”