THE RECENT STORM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5861, 1 May 1897, Page 6

THE RECENT STORM.

[_Per Pkess Association.] GISBORNE, April 30. To show the cyclonic nature of the recent storm, Captain Marten, of the schooner Waiapu, has given somo information that should be of special interest to nautical men. The "Waiapii, which was bound from Timaru to Gisborne, had a remarkable experience. She was off Castle Point when the storm was raging at its height and wreaking the most damage. Between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. on Friday the Zuleika was being dashed to pieces on the rocks in Palliser Bay, and the Pirate was being ■washed ashore at Portland Island. With the Zuleika the gale was blowing fiercely from the south. With the * Pirate, 160 miles away, it was a north-easterly gale. The Waiapu was in the centre of the cyclone, and experienced a dead calm. During the four hours indicated one could have held a lighted candle on the deck of the schooner ; there was not a puff of wind to blow it out. Though there was this deadly stillness in the air, ihere was plenty to remind Captain Marten that he was in the centre of a storm. The seas were tremendous, converging from all directions, and swept over the little vessel all the time. There were heavy thunderbolts and tremendous rain. "It did not rain; the water fell in tons, and there were hailstorms fit to blind you/' There is a safe rule for the guidance of mariners th^.t in storms of this nature a _. vessel oliould be got away from the storm centre, else the seas, may overwhelm her, so Captain Marten followed this rule, and . made for the eastward upon the starboard tack. Here the oil engines of the Waiapu came into service, for with the dead calm the sails were useless. Pour hours' use of the engines brought the schooner out o£ the cyclone centre, and ran her into the gale, where, though the storm raged fiercely for two days, she was undoubtedly safer than if she had remained becalmed in such fearful seas. Captain Marten, speaking from fifteen years' experience and observations, f says that in a south-easterly gale there is a terrible sweep towards Cook Strait ; and to lessen the number of shipwrecks, foreign masters coasting New Zealand should be warned that it is necessary to make at least three points off land to allow for this inset.