THE PORT BOWEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 23, 27 July 1939, Page 11

THE PORT BOWEN

CHANCES OF REFLOATING

OWNERS OPTIMISTIC

(By Telegraph— Press Association.)

WANGANUI, July 26.

The masters of the four tugs now c t Castlecliff and the owners of the stranded Port Bowen are all optimistic that when the spring tides rise next week, probably on Monday or Tuesday, the vessel will be pulled into deep water.

Those who know the contour of j • Castlecliff beach are aware that the! I vessel is now well within the first bank J jof sand on which she grounded a j week ago. Between that outer bank and the beach, where people bathe, is a deep, sometimes lagoon-like area of j water, which at high tide is as much as 30 to 40 feet deep. Swimmers who traverse that deep water find themt.2lves on an outer bar of sand, which at times could be called a beach. What hope the tugmasters have lies in not only being able to manoeuvre the ship into that ieep water from the inner beach, but in finding a way through the outer bank of sand. A conference of masters of tugs was held today, and Captain S. E. Gregory marine superintendent of the , Port Line, who has been in charge of salvage operations since they began, •me ashore to assist in making plans for the future. To those who understand the sea, the present position of the ship is considered tc be more favourable, :n that, close inshore, she is less liable to the buffeting from *vaves breaking on the outer sandbank. All important from the point of view of the masters of the tugs, however, will be whether the cargo of the Port Bowen can be unloaded in time. An empty ship, they firmly believe; can oe rescued from the position the Port Bowen is in now, Lut can she be unloaded? Normally it would take a month, } perhaps two months, to get the enormous amount of cargo from her holds. She was loaded at Auckland, Napier. Lyttelton, and Picton, and har only two ports to call at before shu finally sailed for England—Wanganui. and Wellington. A DIFFICULT TASK. Given favourable conditions, her j loading at Wanganui was expected to Stake three days, the cargo to be put aboard including 20,000 carcasses f frozen meat (mutton and lamb). If it would take three days at least to load the ship when all her pdwer was available for lifting cargo from lighters into! the hold, it will take considerably j more time to extract the cargo loaded at the three other ports. It will be still more tedious and difficult to deal with that cargo if the ship's engines have to remain idle. It was stated toe* ay, however, that when the weather moderates and the ship is steady, it will be safe to put steam into her boilers again and so create power, but if the ship is to be unloaded without power the task will not be a matter of weeks or days, but of months. • ' - : The ill-fated Indrabarah, which ran ashore near the mouth of the Rangitikei River in Jai-.uary, 1924, had to be fully unloaded; She floated off J when least expected, with an excep-; tionally high tide and a shore-to-sea' wind and the assistance of one tug— the Terawhiti. • ■ i The installation of a temporary light ing plant on the Port Bowen w-as put in hand today, when a generator j weighing three-quarters of a ton, was, taken on board in sections. j