STEAMER NARROWLY ESCAPES COLLISION WITH HUGE WHALE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17996, 5 November 1926, Page 13

STEAMER NARROWLY ESCAPES COLLISION WITH HUGE WHALE.

P*r Frese* Association. DUNEDIN, November 4. The seamen on the steamers running across the stretch of sea from Dunedin to Lyttelton sometimes see a whale or two wallowing in the water, and they are quite satisfied to keep them at a distance. On the last trip north by the Holm dale, however, the men on watch had a rather unpleasant experience. The weather was hazy, and suddenly a huge mass rose thirty or forty feet in front of the bow of the vessel, and a volume of water spouted in the\ air. It was a whale, estimated to be over 60ft in length, and the ship had no chance of avoiding a collision. Fortunately the whale, which became just as much startled as the men on the ship, managed to get out of the way. but it must have missed the Holmdale by inches only as it disappeared in a swirl of water. Thus was another peril of the sea averted. A remarkable point about the incident was that the whale appeared to be accompanied by shoals of porpoises. At any rate, they were there in hundreds as the vessel passed by the mighty mammal.