TUG’S LONG VOYAGE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19006, 6 May 1924, Page 6

TUG’S LONG VOYAGE.

GLASGOW TO AUSTRALIA. EXCITING EXPERIENCES SYDNEY, April 2,3. Stowaways and storms provided more than a sufficiency of adventure for the little tug Janies Wallace, of 190 tons, which reached Fremantle, en route to Sydney, from Glasgow last week. While between Glasgow and Gibraltar, the first stage of the long, and, for so small a craft, daring voyage, three stowaways were discovered hiding behind the boilers. They had heard that the tug was bound for Australia and had taken the opportunity of attempting to secure a free passage. In a few days they wished that the finger of adventure had pointed to another mode of travel, as the tug met with exceptionally heavy weather in the southern portion of the Irish sea and ran into an extremely fierce gale in the Bay of Biscay. “It was the worst gale reported during the winter,” said Captain Hewer, in describing the voyage. “The strong winds from the east whipped the sea into huge waves and broke right over the little vessel. We shipped seas at an alarming rate, but each successive roller was shaken outboard and the tug pushed onwards. The conditions in the stokehold may be imagined tvhen I say that one fireman was so badly injured that he had to be landed at Gibraltar. The best weather of the trip we had on the run from Port Said to Jcvel Teir, but from Jevel Teir to Aden the elements combined for a further manifestation of their awfulness. The seas were running high and a strong wind was blowing. The fender wood and the cope iron on the port, bow was washed away and we were very glad when we reached Aden. At Colombo the third engineer was put ashore suffering from an illness. The run from Colombo to Batavia was uneventful, and we did that stretch of 1885 miles in seven days 19 hours, or at the rate of 10 knots.” The tug’s experiences were added to while she was in port, at Batavia. A cyclone “hit” the town and unroofed the harbour master’s dwelling close to where the tug was lying. A vessel working cargo near the tug had her hatches stripped and the coolies, who were standing on the tarpaulins used to cover the hatches, were caught, up like so much straw and carried away distances of up to a few hundred feet by the force of the blow. The James Wallace escaped unscratched Bad weather marked the journey’ from Batavia to Fremantle. On leaving Batavia an exceptionally heavy gale was encountered in the Sunda Strait. The tug was thrashed by boiling seas that swept furiously over her and dangerously large quantities of water were shipped. Pushing south the northwest coast of Australia was reached, but. the weather did not abate. Persistent easterly gales flung the littlo

craft around like a cork, and on many occasions the conditions were so bad that speed was slackened, and for 36 awful hours the vessel was “hove to” off the North-West Cape. Making as much as possible of the shelter afforded by the coast, the vessel made better weather on the latter portion of the run. and her steaming time from Batavia to Fremantle was nine days.

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