After encountering the heaviest blow ever experienced by any of its officers and probably by the ship itself, the str, Fooshing arrived in Shanghai from Swatow, having taken five days for a journey that usually occupies 24 a All shipping from the south has bern delayed for the past few daya because of the heavy wind from the north, and correspondingly, ships arriving in Shanghai from the north have shown a general tend: ency to be early. 'This is not un' usual at this time of year, but the] Fooshing certainly struck "an usual patch of weather.
With the wind blowing at between 90 to 100 miles an hour, the Fooshing almost stood on end as it pitch. ed, sometimes with the ship out of the water from the bow to the level of the foremast, sometimes with the] stern well out and the _propeler racing furiously. With the ship] rolling. at the same time it seemed as if at any tne it right become wreck.
The Foothing, 2284 tons, is one of the Indo-China Steam Navigation Co's coasting cargo fleet, and its regular yun is from Hongkong to Swatow, Shanghai and Tsingtao The vessel was built 26 years ago by Messrs. Swan and Hunter, the juders of the Mauretania.
Captain Baleh, the skipper of the ship, sai "We all have a deep sense of gratitude for being alive. The 8rd officer has been at} sea for 22 years and the chief ongineer has been out here for 16 and neither has seen any. thing' like the weather we eneoun~ tered.
Ye picked up the S.O.S. signal sent out by the Hedwig and I am glad to see by the "North-China Daily News" that H. M. S. Suffolk saved the crew. We received the signal while we were in the thick of our own difficulties, and wondered how soon we might have to send out an SES. ourselves. Luckily] we have a stout ship, although #8 45] 26 years old. snow and ther, it would come half out of the water and then hit the water again with 3 crash that shook everything. and} everybody on board."
The worst perioll of the journey was in the vicinity of the Hicshan Islands, which are situated half way: between Ningpo and [Wenchow, For three hours it seomed.as if the ship would not get clear, but it was managed gradually to drift it out of danger. The Captain was on the bridge for 50 hours, and did not even get time to obtain a change of clothing. Thert was one thing which gave great cause for thankfulness, and that was the visibility which on the whole was good, Bad visibility, combined with the: moun-famous seas that were running, would have given the ship very little chance at the Hieshans, There sere one or two amusing moments during the storm, however, At any rate they appeared to the officers to be amusing yesterday, although on the trip itself they might not have been so funny, For instance, the remark of an engineer who was eating his dinner with one foot on the wall and an: other on the floor, holding a pork chop in one hand' and a piece of bread and butter in the other, who complained that there were no fiddles on the soup." The fiddles were in position on every table, to keep the crockery in place, but the trouble was that the food Would pot stay in the crockery.
As a matter of fact, practically fall the crockery on the ship way broken, and had to be replaced by almost an entire new set. This appears to -be the only damage done to the ship, which is very well found, and Was battened down during the blow. Even at that water managed to find its way into one or two of the Chinese passenger cabins, and the occupants had to move. The only passengers on board in the foreign cabins were a German lady ant gentleman who have travelled over most of the world before meeting fan experience like the Fooshing's, For a ship that had been through what was probably one of the worst blows on the China Coast, and was thought at one time by its officers. to be a "goner," the Fooshing yester day looked remarkably trim, except for some of its paintwork. The only wireless message sent to Shanghi driving the trip was one that real "severe gale, 2 knots." The ship's usual speed is 11 knots.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.