The Semi-weekly leader., 1922-03-04

enough to any sallorman 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. A cats instinct
and sailors hunch are the same thing, he de-
clares, only the cat can go ashore at any port
when dissatisfied and await another ship while
seaman has to consider pay losses and other tries
like that which don't bother CATS and so he sticks
to craft he'd like to leave against his better
judgment Sinbad left the Canastota because
warned by instinct of the ships impending fate
and went ashore at Sydney to await homeward
bound veSse-sO the black gang of the West Wind
has it.
One hundred and fifty miles off the Mobiles
at Newcastle, the Mobiles" being headlands, Cap
tain Abbott ran into bad weather. beginning with
intermittent squalls from the southeast, increas-
ing to a gale as the harbOr was neared, and at
last assuming cyclonic violence The West Wind
being in light trim on her beam ends half the
time.
There was Seventy-mile 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 was.
We hadn't enough power to make headway against
such blow. The West Wind was turbine boat
during the war. Later they converted her into
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 was
a matter of six knots.
"We headed into that storm with every pound
Of steam We could raise but our 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 l ever saw. We were grabbing 1t for the rocks
at lively clip, so at 80 p. M 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 on it was ding-dong fight,
steaming full speed into our 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 next she'd be standing on
her tail with the bow pointing skyward.
I'VE weren't alone in our troubles. The Kalapoi
out Of New Zealand and the Chronos from Adelaide
for Sydney were the only ships to make port. Half
dozen other crafts were ordered to like our
selves. The Century, plying between Melbourne
and Ocean island to leeward of US, firing
rockets every minute or and exercising her sig
nal gun. She seemed to be making heavy weather
of 1t.
"The pilot steamer Ajax out of Newcastle went
to the Centurys assistance and got a line aboard
after some trouble. She came through all right
after an all-night scramble. l 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 was the worst plight of all because Of
short boiler capacity. On top Of that had five
hundred tons of coal piled on 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 80 tons went the lee rail out
the scuppers. BY daylight main deck was
swept clean.
"One important thing that helped pull the West
Wind through was a 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