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TUESDAY'S STORM AT
FREMANTLE.
The Government astronomer (Mr. W. E.
Cooke) reported as follows on Tuesday night :
-" To-day's Storm is one of the ordinary
winter type, but rather more severe than
usual. The centre is passing along the
Southern Ocean from west to east, and at 6
p m. was between the longitudes of Cape
Leeuwin and Breaksea. The lowest reading
of the barometer at the Leeuwin was 29.19
at 2 p.m, and at 6 p.m. the barometer at
Albany had fallen to 29.38 ; at Perth the
minimum, 29.55, occurred at 1.20 p.m. A
heavy gale has been blowing along the coast
between here and the Leeuwin. At the
Observatory the anemograph recorded 630
miles between 2 a.m. and 4 p.m., or an
average of 45 miles per hour for 14 hours ;
310 miles between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., or an
average of 52 miles for 6 hours ; and 168
miles between noon and 3 p.m., or an average
of 56 miles per hour for 3 hours. At the
Leeuwin it travelled 915 miles during the 24
hours ended at 8 o'clock this morning, or an
average for the day of 40 miles per hour, and
to-day the record shows 556 miles for 10
hours, or an average, between 4 a.m. and 6
p.m. of 56 miles per hour. The heaviest gale
we have hitherto experienced since the
anemograph was mounted, occurred on
January 27, 1898, when the wind travelled
500 miles in a little under 10 hours."
The Herald says : The rapidity with which
the barometer fell on Monday afternoon led
shipping people at Fremantle to anticipate a
heavy gale, and their expectations were amply
realised yesterday, for the heaviest gale
known for several years was experienced.
Soon after midnight on Monday, the wind,
which had been blowing with fitful strength
daring the preceding afternoon, began to in-
crease in strength, and was accompanied by
very heavy rain squalls. By morning a strong
nor'-westerly gave was blowing with a force
of about 50½ miles an hour, while constantly
recurring squalls, bringing up from the ocean
blinding sheets of heavy rain and sleet, swept
over the shipping and the town at the rate
of about 68 miles an hour. Ihe surf beating
on the north shore and along the moles and
Esplanade made a noise like thunder, and it
whistled among the rigging of the vessels in
the harbor with the sound of a huge forest
soughing under the force of a hurricane
Huge seas swept clean over the breakwaters,
and spray was carried long distances inland,
All day long the wind blew fiercely, reaching
its climax at about noon, and gradually
decreasing in strength towards dusk.
The effects of the gale were everywhere
evident. Most damage was done to the
Esplanade where the sloping wall of lime-
stone proved of little worth against the
heavy breakers that rolled incessantly against
it. The stonework was dashed to pieces and
large lumps were lifted on to the opposite
side of tbe Esplanade, which towards even-
ing presented rather the appearance of a
goldfields gully, abandoned by alluvial men,
than a fashionable promenade much in favor
among cyclists. In places the stones covered
the road to a depth of a foot, completely
obliterating the Owen's Anchorage railway
line for long distances.
The damage done to the railway line is
serious. Almost along its entire length it
was rendered impassable for locomotives.
From a point opposite Henry-street to the
end of the Esplanade it was almost covered
with a layer of the limestone smashed off the
sea wall, and dashed up on the Esplanade by
the seething billows, while in places the
waves had eaten a passage right underneath,
leaving a gap below the sleepers At the
end of the Esplanade, where the sleepers lie
I merely upon a little ballast immediately on
the beach, the damage was so severe that the
line will require to be re-ballasted for nearly
a mile. The waves simply sucked the sand
from under the ballast, which naturally fol-
lowed its foundation into the vortex, and
left the sleepers bared and partly suspended
in space.
Messrs. J. and W. Bateman's schooner
Maua, which was washed on to the beach be-
low the baths io a gale last year, and which
has ever since reposed in the bed she made for
herself in the sand, despite the many efforts
to kedge her off, could not defy the force of
the waves, and she was moved further up the
beach, and left with a considerable list
towards the sea. As a result of the gale she
has not now the distinction of being the only
vessel on the beach. During the height of
the storm a lighter belonging to Mr. W.
Chamberlain parted her moorings, and was
carried on to the beach in the neighborhood
of "By-the-Sea road," losing her rudder.
Later on in the day a second lighter went
ashore. She was the scow belonging to Mr. A.
Brown. At about 130 those onshore noticed
that she bad begun to drift, and Mr. Brown
and a companion put out from the small
jetty in a dingy, notwithstanding the heavy
sea They managed to board the lighter and
to raise two sails in an endeavour to sail her
out of danger, but they were too late, as the
vessel bad got too close in to the shore, upon
which she grounded soon after they got on
board. She washed up against the rocks on
the sea well, a short distance on the town
side of the baths, and was considerably
damaged, but no proper idea of the damage
she sustained could be formed, as night fell
before the wind and waves subsided, and left
her fairly dry upon the rocks.
In the river the shipping suffered no in
jury whatever at their berths and moorings.
In years past, when vessels had to discharge
at the main jetty, this would have been im-
possible. Fortunately, yesterday, there were
no vessels at the main jetty, which is avoided
as much as possible by masters. The heavy
gale was but slightly impeded by the low
strip of laud dividing the river from the
ocean, and it raised a big sea in the harbor,
which dashed spray clear over the wharf,
almost to the goods sheds, and, which did
considerable damage to the face of the new
wall being constructed on the edge of the
river behind the portion of the quay at which
I the sailing vessels lie, by washing off a large
strip of the rocks newly placed in position
by the Harbor Works Department. The
heavy sea rendered it impossible for the
dredges to work, and the Fremantle dredge
was moored alongside the quay with diffi-
culty, such being also the case with the
lighter Tamerlane, which was moved from
alongside the steamer Adelaide to a berth at
the wharf. The Adelaide was ready for
sea at an early hour, bat her master would
not face the heavy weather, and determined
to keep the steamer at her berth until this
morning. Work all along the wharf was
only done in a spasmodic manner between
the gusts. Nevertheless, the barque Pioneer,
which had only a few sleepers to take in to
complete her loading, was able to finish, and
most of the sailing vessels did a little work.
The Irby could not do anything in the way
of discharging her lumber, and she proved
very susceptible to the weight of the wind,
heeling right over, and putting her bulk
right on the top of the wharf fender-piles,
so that her crew, as well as that of other
vessels in a similar plight, had their time well
occupied in keeping their vessels tendered off
properly.
On the North Mole a locomotive had in the
morning the task of moving some trucks, and
those on the engine had a bad time of it, as
the su t leaped clear over the locomotive.
Men were at work on the north shore with a
ballast train, but they could l rot do much
with the hurricane-like squalls that beat
against them in their unprotected position
on the low strip of land between the two
sheets of water, and they had to suspend
operations
The lowest the barometer fell to was 29.47
at about noon, when the gale was raging at
its highest. Old residents at the Port say
that they have had far heavier blows, but
have seen few gales in which the seas attained
sach a force.
Perth, Thursday.
Captain Angus absolutely declined to say
a word as to what be thought of the effects
of the late gale at Fremantle He leaves for
Melbourne in the R.M S. Oriental.
$