Divers To Try To Swim Into Collier

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31080, 8 June 1966, Page 1

Divers To Try To Swim Into Collier

YA'ew' Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, June 7. If conditions are ideal tomorrow the divers on H.M.N.Z.S. Inverell will try to swim into the engineroom of the sunken collier Kaitawa. The Inverell is steaming to the area off the northern tip of New Zealand where it is believed the Kaitawa, which disappeared in a raging storm, is lying on the seabed. The divers will study the ship’s telegraph system. The telegraphs—if they had not been disrupted when the ship was wrecked —may show what speed the Kaitawa was doing and this may be a material point which will assist the inquiries.

The divers know how to find their w r ay about the wreck. All seven divers were shown over the Kaitawa’s sister ship, the Kaitangata, when she was in dry dock at Devonport recently.

The indications are that the telegraphs on the ship’s bridge were destroyed, as wreckage of the upper structure has been washed ashore.

To get to the engine-room, the divers wilt have to swim down passageways, which if the ship is lying on its side, as believed, will not be very high. Lieutenant N. L. Merrick, the diving-team leader, said: “One of the snags is that there are only four skylights and this will mean that the engine room wiK be very dark. We have six sea cell

torches which throw a light up to four feet and last for an hour.”

Getting to the engine-room would be like swimming through a honeycomb of tunnels and walkways, he said. The divers’ main objects are to check the position of the ship’s two liferafts, to find which way the ship is lying, and in what direction, and to see if any of the hatches had been opened up. “The rest will be general looking around,” said Lieutenant Merrick. ‘The wheelhouse has been destroyed to

a large amount and it may be that being in the water for a fortnight or so the ship’s log has just disintegrated."

Locating Wreck

If H.M.N.Z.S. Tul using her high-definition echo-sounder equipment ’ gets suitable soundings, she will moor over the Kaitawa’s hull with anchors dropped from all four corners. This will enable her to manoeuvre in any direction of a circle of about 100 yards in radius. Lieutenant Merrick wil* be transferred from the Inverell to the Tui and will watch the television screen as the Tui’s underwater camera is lowered over the wreck. Lieutenant Merrick said the camera would be used to find out as much as possible about the wreck and the best position for the divers to go down. The camera could not be turned round once it was in the water. To get an overall picture of the hull it would have to be towered several times.

Because the mechanics of the camera were better than the human eye, it would be able to see 10 per cent better than the divers. Lieutenant Commander G. B. W. Johnson, the naval surveyor who made the soundings of an area of 10 square miles during the last two weeks is now in the Tui. He has produced an accurate chart of the sea depth in the area.

Lieutenant Merrick said Lieutenant Commander Johnson would direct the Tui to the wreck’s position. The training ship H.M.N.Z.S. Kiama, which carries heavy buoy-marking equipment is acting as senior ship in the search. She will co-ordinate reports and keep Auckland Naval Headquarters informed of search progress.

Search Ended

The land search for objects washed ashore from the wrecked Kaitawa is to be abandoned tomorrow. The search of beaches and coastal cliffs has been going on for mere than a fortnight. Senior Serpeant G. I. Melville was informed today by the Search and Rescue Organisation in Auckland that the concentrated ground search was no longer required. Senior Sergeant Melville said tonight that it would probably take all day to pack up. Some men have been in the area for more than a fortnight. The Special Air Service unit which has been helping police search the cliffs is expected to leave early tomorrow for Papakura camp.

Searches were continued today on beaches to the south of Cape Reinga by the five policemen two soldiers and one civilian.

Senior Sergeant Melville said that the only search tomorrow would be the investigation of a white object sighted on rocks near Scott’s Point this afternoon.