In any case they wouldn't have me and I left Dunedin aboard the Manchuria, before the Terra Nova sailed, bound for Nadya Bay, a timber port In the north of the South New Zealand island, to load for Sydney.
We had fine passage up the coast, and about four o'clock one noon, made the land, well to the sou'ward of Cape Campbell. The
from the south eastward. The glass Pind was "moderate, but freshening. was low and had been falling " for 'A sure sign of a "southerly as they call the most dreaded gale of these latitude, in Australian waters, but we hoped to get through the Cook Strait before came and we were carrying possibly more sail than we should have been because of this.
T took over from the Mate at eight that night. The Old Man had turned in, trying to. get a litle sleep before we'made the Strait as he would deck all night piloting ur through and he had left word to be called when Campbell was abeam or before that if there was any change in the weather. Shortly afier tak: ing over the deck Thad a look at the barometer and found it was rising. That. could only mean one thing. The weather-wise sailor ill remember the rhyme:—
"Pirst rise after very low, Indicates a stronger blow™ but the glass was still low for a polar wind so I furled all small canvas such as royals, flying and outer jib, upper staysails and gatttopsail and called the Captain.
Thad the fore t'gan'sall in and was clewing up the main when he came on deck. He took one look to the southward any yelled "Lo go topsail halyards, up foresail" (the mainsail was fast), "brail in spanker" but it was too late—before the _topsail yards were on the caps the gale was urfing To What?
I have been in a few southerly busters around the Australian and New Zealand coasts but never one Uke that. The sea was white with the fury of the gale and the rain came down in torrents. The two upper topsails, inner jib and spanker were torn to ribbons and there was not enough left of the unfurled main gan'sall to make a waistcoat for a mosquito, We had to run for it, on into the Strait, It would have' been' impos At midnight we saw faintly the light on Tarawiti Head, It cleared a bit then and we got a sight of Mount Wellington and the high land to port. We were doing all of twelve Knots under lower topsails which will give you some idea the strength of the wind that was blow-Ing. By then we should have seen the light on the Brothers, but didn't. The moon struggled through the heavy clouds occasionally and showed us what looked, in the dim light, like land all around. There was panic aboard. Even the Cap-vin was effected. "He thought we had been set to the southward and westward and were heading into "Cloudy Bay" on a set course which should have token us clear of all danger. He thought Tarawitl light was the light at the entrance Cloudy Bay and that the land was hiding the Brothers" light, can write, and speak, lightly of that night now after all these years but it was different then, "There was fear in my heart and I knew my shipmates felt fear also. If we were in Cloudy Bay, we were in a cul-de-sac with deep soundings right up to the high cliffs, T remember we took off our oilskins and sea boots, they would have hindered our swim: ming when we struck.
We clewed up the two lower topsails and went hurling on into the hight and what we felt sure was cer~ tain destruction, There seemed not tone chanco in a hundred of any of us surviving. Men cursed the skipper and we of the after guard with Out a rebuke, Fate of Last Survivor The suspense was terrible. We could do nothing, Fear made us almost powerless, Tt was the Mate who brought back our sanity. If the Captain was more sailor than navigator, the Mate wa more navigator than sailor. He had taken bearings and coming up from the cabin, after laying his bearings fon the chart, said to the skipper.
"Captain, if that is Cloudy Bay light we were ashore hours ago." Tt seemed such a stupid thing to say, but it made the Old Man think, "He belayed everything (we were rigging gear to get the lifeboat over) and took bearings himself, Before he had finished, the thickness ahead, which we had mistaken for Jand, cleared away and the Brothers' light, Tike a star of hope oF like. the morning sun to warm. our courage, shone out ahead of Us and wwe knew ourselves safe, One of the boys, who had been completely unnerved, fainted. 1 felt fainting myself' the relief was great. Had the light been hidden another ten minutes we would have piled "up on the rocks. As it was Wwe altered our course to the north'= cleared the land with less than a cable's length to spare. ight we were ashore hours ago."
In thirty years of seafaring T have been in some tight corners. I have often feared shipwreck and' dangers, During the war T was mine-sweeping and we never went out on our job without some fear, but 1 have never been afraid as T was that sible for us to beat a light ship off shore with two lower" topsails. It wouldn't have been so bad if the weather had been clear but it was thick and visibility was bad.
We got a glimpse of Cape Campbell light between the rain squalls and shaped our course for the mid. lo of the Strait and. the Brother's light, forty-three miles away. right in the Cook Strait, nor do 1 believe I have ever been as near death. left the Manurewa in Sydney when we got there, I could never have sailed in her again. She was the last survivor of the New Zealand barques and was lost when she was bound for the South Sea Island, some years after T had left Austra-Man waters.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.