IN THE GRIP OF A GALE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12746, 17 April 1909, Page 7

IN THE GRIP OF A GALE.

Barque's Thrilling Experiences

MELBOURNE, April 10

The experiences of the barque Blenheim, on the voyage from Devonport (Tasmania) to Melbourne, are seldom met with on a trip of thousands of miles. The Blenheim is a stout vessel of 1077 tons register, and Bhe sailed from Devonport in charge of Captain H. O. Anderson, on March 24, in a dead calm. ,

When about two hours out at sea, however, she was caught in the grip of a howling westerly gale of tremendous force, and in a few hours she was struggling off a bad lee shore on Flinders Island, in thick, hazy weather. A slight variation of the wind to the south just rescued the vessel from her perilous position, and, beating up the Straits, she managed- to sight Cape Schank on Sunday week last, in a tempest of wind. A north-westerly course for Port Phillip Heads was pet, but the barque had hardly begun to make progress when the gale shifted with alarming suddenness, right from that quarter, and whirled the Blenheim out into the Straits again, al-

most to the coast of Taainania.

In the first fierce cM th<» upper topsail was split to ribbons, and tlv> foresail was blown overboard in a Mndher of scud and spray. Tuesday morning: f-^md the Blenheim again in a dangerous position, drifting under almost bare poles on to the lee shore of Flinders Island, but the crew again managed to work her clear. For a week after it blew a solid gale from every direction but the right one, and, without canvas on her, the Blenheim was tossed about the Strait sat the mercy of the sea and wind, like a cork, and once more was almost blown on to the Tasmanian coast, near Launceston.

A long beat was made up to Port Phillip Heads again, and Captain Anderson was standing on the forecastle head, trying to sight the pilot through the haze, when again the gale shifted, and the Blenheim was blown away. She had almost reached Tasmania again when the gale, without abating, swept round to the southwest, and, gradually clapping on sail, the crew sighted Curtis Island on Tuesday last, early in the morning. ( Still piling canvas on, the Heads were made on Wednesday, and entered an hour or so after. The Blenheim dropped anchor in Hobson's Bay after a passage of 14 days, with a weary captain and crew, who had not been out of their salt-stiffened clothes during the whole of that time.