NORTH SEA DASH

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 759, 4 September 1929, Page 15

NORTH SEA DASH

WOMAN’S ADVENTURE IN MOTOR-BOAT WILD WIND AND SEA i Describing a dash made by her j across the North sea from Aberdeen to Staxenger in a motor-boat. Mrs. M- Stewart, wife of LieutenantColonel K. X. Stewart, said the boat, j was "like a ghost slipping through the ! night." On the evening of June III) Mrs. Stewart, accompanied by her husband. : a friend, and a mechanic, left Aberjrieen for Norway—a distance of over j 300 sea miles—in a frail speed-boat. Sea Hawk IV. | After having encountered heavy : seas and a high wind for 26 hours. ■ they lauded at Sole. 12 miles from ; their Norwegian objective. Stavanger. | Mrs. Stewart, safe in the lounge of i a London hotel, at which she had ar- ! rived from Norway only an hour . before told a thrilling story, j "I like a good kick in an adventure now and then, she said, but this kick was far too long for my liking. It was the same trouble during the war. “A sudden thrill can be met and even enjoyed, but prolonged danger tends to get monotonous. Like a cocktail, one makes you bright, but too many make you drunk. "Soon after we left Scotland we passed a fleet of fishing boats on a sandbank, and those were the last boats we saw till we sighted land. “After we had been out about six hours we struck a heavy sea and a north-west wind. The waves must have been lift or 15ft high, and when waves that height break—well, you're iu a nasty mess, to put it mildly. It was at the dead hour between three ; ami four iu the morning that xve felt l our worst. Happily the heavy winds and waves lasted only for three or four hours then it flattened a bit and 1 began to feel that it wasn't so bad after ail. “About six hours later we still hadn't sighted land or ships, and we were a long time overdue. The wind came up again, and at one time we got as far as preparing the sea anchor and the oil bags. “I cannot say truthfully that I was frightened. The only thing that troubled us the whole time was the ‘gas’ problem. When we landed we had about half a pint of petrol left. In fact, we were using up our emergency tuDk before we sighted land. I was neter so glad to see land in mv life. "When we landed only one small child saw us, and it fled like mad as if it had seen the very devil himself. But we had a wonderful reception at Stavanger. There we found five minesweepers, and I wish I had known that before! because we learned that thev xvere going to give us till nine o'clock and then look for us. Had we known that xve xvould have felt much better. “The curious thing about the trip xvas that although we were travelling all through the night it was like daylight all the time. You could have read a new'spaper, it was so light.”