STORM BATTERS SHIPS

Taranaki Daily News, 22 November 1930, Page 6

STORM BATTERS SHIPS

WHOLE GALE ON WEST COAST GOLDEN WEST’S LONG VOYAGE. TOTARA HAS A ROUGH PASSAGE. A westerly gale which at times reached almost hurricane force harried all the shipping passing along the west coast yesterday. Vessels ranging in size from the big trans-Pacific steamer Golden West to the little motor vessel Hauturu were thrown out of their running, and every vessel within the storm area was pounded by heavy seas. Twenty-nine hours late the Oceanic and Oriental Navigation Company’s Golden West (5587 tons) arrived' at New Plymouth early yesterday afternoon. She was a “light ship,” carrying' only tfie last 850 tons of her cargo from the Pacific Slope, and the huge seas tossed her about like a cork. She was drawing only 16ft. of water aft and 9ft. forward, and although this caused the vessel to roll to every sea the height of the vessel out of the water prevented her shipping any seas. ■> The force of the wind and the beam seas did not permit the ship to make much headway and it was necessary to slow the engines, for the screw was repeatedly racing in the air as the vessel lifted on the long rollers. At one portion of the voyage Captain Phillips was compelled to turn the vessel off its course and nose into the wind. The wbather, he said, was the roughest he had experienced during his seven years’ experience of the coast. The Golden West rolled unpleasantly with a rapid motion that sometimes reached an angle of 30 degrees. On Thursday morning the Golden TVest reached Cape Egmout, where the seas were terrific. The coaster Totara, heavily laden, passed her and it could he seen that the large vessel was being buffeted severely by the storm. The Golden West could make no headway at all. A whole gale was blowing but with quick changes of direction that necessitated ' frequent changes in the vessel’s course; Yesterday morning the weather moderated somewhat and the Golden West struggled into port at New Plymouth at 1 o’clock, 39 hours after quitting Nelson. She will proceed'to Gisborne this evening to load a cargo of meat for Honolulu,

Although only about two and a half hours late the ‘Union Company’s coaster Totara (426-tons), which arrived at New Plymouth shortly before the Golden WeXt, had a very rough voyage up the coast from Wellington. After leaving Cook Strait the vessel ran into a soukwester which changed into a whole westerly gale when the Totara was about 15 miles past Stephen Island. From then on the weather continued extremely rough. The coaster wgis fully loaded ,however,' and weathered the storm better than the Golden West. All the way up the coast the Totara shipped water, and when eventually she put in at New Plymouth her decks were running wet. “We struck three seas once and she did everything but turn over,” remarked Captain Eden as the vessel came alongside the Moturoa wharf. The Northern Company’s motor vessel Hauturu tried throe times to cross the Manukau bar, once on Thursday night and twice yesterday, but the gale blowing into the mouth of the liarbour rendered it impossible for her to get out. The trip to New Plymouth was abandoned yesterday afternoon and the vessel will leave Onehunga again on Monday. : At New Plymouth unloading operations on the Barrdale, which has a quantity of phosphates, were disorganised by repeated squalls of rain and as a result the vessel will be delayed until Monday.