Tui Finds Wreck Of Kaitawa

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31081, 9 June 1966, Page 1

Tui Finds Wreck Of Kaitawa

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, June 8.

The wreck of the Kaitawa, its superstructure gone, was found upside down on the seabed today, 4.7 miles from Cape Reinga.

It appeared from the way the wreck was lying that divers would not be able to get inside it, said a Naval hydrographic surveyor, Lieutenant Commander G. W. B. Johnson.

The research ship Tui, using her underwater camera, found the wreck in 22 fathoms at 4.15 p.m. The hull is apparently near or resting on an outcrop of rock about 25 feet high.

"We got the impression that the hull was sitting flush on the sea bottom. The super structure had completely gone but the hull appeared to be intact.” Lieutenant-Comman-der Johnson said. The wreck was about 200

yards from the buoys where naval divers from the Inverell had investigated earlier today. “We had raised the camera to clear a rock and when we had lowered it again we picked up the wreck on a sand and rock bottom. We found it again at 4.35 p.m. and at 4.40 p.m. we saw from 50 to 60 feet of the upturned hull about midships. “On the second occasion we saw part of the hull close to the stern. We saw the keel and the bilge keel. “There is a rock quite close to the wreck and this made it difficult to place the tele-

vision camera near the wreck.”

The television reception was clear but the last time the hull was seen the light was fading fast.