PHENOMENAL FOGS

Hokitika Guardian, 10 July 1926, Page 2

PHENOMENAL FOGS

SYDNEY, July 1. The fogs which Sydney has been ex periencing are the worst for the last 67 years. What the fogs were like in Sydney before that is not known, for the- records go back only that far, but it is hardly conceivable that the recent fogs have had any parallel in Sydney. They have blotted out the whole of the harbour and Circular Quay, as though they had slipped into immeasurable space. Like a vast, ghostly pall, they have enveloped everything—the harbour, the‘ferries, wharves, everything. How the ferries have groped their way with only one collision—and even that was unattended by casualties—is something of a miracle. Only those who have been on the crowded ferries as they have blindly groped their way in the early morning, amidst the shrill blasts of sirens, suggesting the lamentation of lost ships, the ringing of hells on lighted wharves, and fog hells, can understand how nerve-racking it has been for the skippers. To be able to see not ten yards ahead of you, to find suddenly another towering vessel looming up alongside you, or coming at ■you head-on, and just missing it by a few feet, to find yourself hopelessly out of your course, or amidst an inextricable tangle of crowded ferries, lias been the experience, morning after 'morning, of the ferry masters. That they .have got a vast army,, of people safely to work each day, even if a little late, is n. tribute to their coollien.’.edness and judgment, blended with not a little good luck. For a shocking disaster to have occurred on one of these very dense fogs was the easiest thing possible. When one thinks of these mgs and the ferry and other water traffic even in good weather, the marvel is that Sydney has been so immune from disasters on the harbour. Tt says something for the level-lieadedne.es and skill of men who have in their bands countless thousands of lives each day.