The Dolores star., 1922-03-03

enough any saornan with insight such as most
sailors have into the ways of ships cats. Hodg-
SON. present custodian of Sinbad insists cats and
sailors have much In common. cats instinct
and n sailors hunch the thing he de-
clares. only the eat 20 ashore at any port
when dissatisfied aud await another ship, while a
seaman has TO consider pay losses and other trifes
ike that which don't bother cats and so he sticks
to craft he'd like to lenve against his better
Judgment. Sinbad left the Canastota because
warned by instinct of the ships impending fate.
and went ashore at Sydney to await n homeward
bound vessel-so the black gang of the West Wind
has it.
One hundred and fifty miles off the "Nobbes'
at Newcastle the "Nobbes' being headlands, Cap
tain Abbott ran into bad weather. beginning with
intermittent squalls from the southeast. increas-
ing to gale the harbor neared. and at
last assuming cyconic violence The West Wind
being in light trim on her beam ends half the
time.
There n seventy-mie gale blowing when
we arrived off Newcastle the afternoon OF July
"a" narrated the West Winds big bronZed skip
per- Il had wireless orders to keep off. so we
went about just before dark and tried to beat out
to sea- but that's where our worst trouble
We hadn't enough power to make headway against
such blow. The West Wind was u turbine boat
during the Later they converted her into a
coal burner. The boiler capacity wasn't increased
enough to properly supply her main engines so
the best to be had out of her in fair weather
a matter of six knots.
we headed INTO tnat storm with every pound
of steam could raise. but screw was out
of water most of the time and the engines racing
The vessel wouldn't obey her helm and was being
slammed about like an empty barrel in the nastiest
sea ever saw. We were grabbing it for the rocks
at lively clip, at 4 80 p. N. ordered both
hooks away The anchors held for a time but
ABOUT dark both began dragging, and we were
off again for the boneyard.
"From that time it dng-dOng fight,
steaming full speed into anchor chains and
losing way gradually, spite of all we could do. One
minute she was burying her bows and Singing her
stern in the air and the she'd be standing on
her tail with the bow pointing skyward
I'VE weren't alone In troubles. The Kalapol
out of New Zealand and the ChrOnos from Adelaide
for sydney were the only ships to make port. Halt
a dozen other crafts were ordered to like our
selves. The Century, plying between Melbourne
and Ocean island was to leeward of us. firing
rockets every minute so and exercising her sig
nal gun. She seemed to be making heavy weather
of 1t.
1.-The pilot steamer Ajax out of Newcastle went
to the Century's assistance, and got a line aboard
after some trouble She came through all right
after all-night scramble. / understand there
were mighty sick folks aboard her when She finally
made port. Other ships that had close calls were
the Armagh and Port Nicholson. The Macumba
out of Newcastle for Sydney, went by us blowing
her fires out of the tunnels under forced draught
She made port safely, too.
ours the worst plight Of all because of
short boiler capacity On top Of that had five
hundred tons of coal piled deck when the storm
broke, having been compelled to clean out the port
bunkers because of fire. Fire in your bunkers with,
benzine slowed all around isn't what you'd call
comfortable combination. Well, I didn't have to
worry long over that coal on deck. because every
time we shipped green one. and we were ship
ping most of the South Pacific about that time
between 25 and so tons went the lee rail or out
the scuppers. By daylight our main deck was
swept clean.
"One important thing that helped pull the West
Wind through was good crew. Every man aboard
stood by sailor fashion and the black gang below
Kept steam on her, standing on their heads good
share Of the time guess. There's lot In being