Feat Of Seamanship.

A memorable voyage of the Hurunui was one she made at the end of 1893, when bound from London to Algoa Bay, South Africa. Captain Plunket landed the pilot on December 16, and soon ran into heavy weather, which by the 20th blew a hurricane, with heavy driving rain. All hands were getting played out with continual making and taking in sail, and three of the hands were laid up. To give the crew as much rest as possible the captain stood over to the French coast in daylight, intending to wear ship at 4 p.m. (dark in the English Channel, of course, at that time of the year). Captain Plunket squared away and had just got the ship paying off when the Casquets Light flashed out just under her bows.

If he continued to wear ship it would mean running right on the Casquets, a small cluster of dangerous rocks six or seven miles west of Alderney. A hasty glance at the chart revealed that there was only one hope, and it was almost a forlorn one, and that was trying the Alderney Race, the strait that separates the island of Alderney from the coast of Normandy. In stormy weather this straight is a fearsome place. If you look at the chart you will see 3½ and 4 fathom patches, numerous rocks, and to complicate matters there is a furious tide of anything from four to six and a-half knots.