IN RAGING GALE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 693, 19 June 1929, Page 11

IN RAGING GALE

TUATEA BATTLES WITH HUGE SEAS

TRIP TO AUCKLAND “Talk about dirty weather! Last night was one of the worst i have ever put in at sea.” The speaker was Captain J. H. Hawkes, master mariner o£ over a quarter of a century’s experience, and skipper of the Union Steam Ship Company’s passenger tender Tuatea., which reached the Waitemata Harbour this morning after a particularly rough passage from Gisborne. The Tuatea has been engaged at Gisborne sines 1905 transhipping passengers from the company’s passenger vessels in the roadstead to the shore. The company has now decided to use her at Auckland for other service. The Tuatea sailed from Gisborne at half-past two on Monday afternoon last in fine, though bitterly cold southerly weather and was well on the

way to Auckland when the gale overtook her. At 4 p.m. yesterday the wind began to rise from the northeast, and during the next four hours increased to terrific strength. The tender was then off Mayor Island, but she did not feel the full force of the storm till she had come out of what is known by mariners as the “Hole in the Wall,” near Mercux’y. All last evening she fought her way in the raging seas, and being a small vessel, was awash continually as the great waves broke over her. At half-past one this morning the storm became so bad that the Tuatea had to heave to. Thus she remained till half-past six this morning, being severely buffeted by the heavy swell. No damage was done on board, for the Tuatea is a fine sea boat. Her captain is very proud of that. The vessel passed North Head at half-past ten this morning, and berthed at Queen’s Wharf at 11.30 a.m. Last night’s storm had delayed her arrival by at least seven hours, as formerly she was expected in the early hours of the morning. The Tuatea was built in Auckland by the well-known Auckland designerbuilder, Mr. Charles Bailey, Junr., in 1905, and is a wooden vessel of 112 tons gross. Her present master, Captain Hawkes, joined her then, and took her on her maiden voyage to Gisborne in October of the same year. He has been on her ever since, and during the past 24 years she has taken no fewer than 300,000 passengers ashore at Gisborne. The Tuatea is to be removed to Western Wharf later, and her future is in the hands of the company. The local office of the Union Steam Ship Company stated this morning that she would probably be used for towing coal hulks about the harbour. At the present time tugs have to be employed for the purpose. The Tuatea carries a crew of eight, and all state that the storm was one of the worst they had experienced. One fireman had a narrow escape from being hurled overboard when a particularly big wave struck the vessel. Several other vessels have been delayed by the storm. The q’uatea passed the Union Company’s Waimea last evening, “bucking into” the gale. She left Auckland at 5.15 p.m. for Gisborne. The Union Company’s coastal steamer Waipiata, en route from Southern ports to Auckland, is at present hove-to in the gale in the Bay of Plenty. She left Wellington for Auckland at 9 p.m. on Monday, and was due here this evening. She is now expected tomorrow. The Westport Coal Company’s collier Canopus, which left Auckland last evening on her return trip to Westport, is anchored off Kawau waiting for the storm to abate.