THE BELL-BUOY Relic of Early Sixties

Lake County Mail, Issue 14, 27 August 1947, Page 5

THE BELL-BUOY Relic of Early Sixties

• In the early days, steamers and small craft entering Queenstown Bay in rough conditions were attended with considerable danger, even to shipwreck. The safeguard providing against such contingency was what was commonly known as a bell-bouy, but the contrivance, from all accounts, was inefficient and crude at the best. . From the files of the Mail in the latter part of 1867 it was reported that the signal buoy at the entrance of the bay is again out of order, or rather the bell has broken off. It goes on to say: “ The present clumsy contrivance has no elasticity. When the wind blew in one direction the bell and rod supporting it would heel over to the opposite side and there lay until an opposite wind blew it back again. A plan to be devised whereby the bell-buoy will make most noise when the weather is most stormy could be attained by substituting a conical buoy and placing above it a bell which shall hang from double joints so as to swing about in every and any direction. The matter is commended to the council as of serious importance.” Evidently the council took little oi no action, because a correspondent signing himself “ Benevolentia,” accuses the council of dilly-dallying and speaks of the total collapse of their energies. “ The wind is boisterous,” says the correspondent, “ and now is the time for shipwreck. The waters resemble (on a proportionately larger scale, of course) that building up and boiling over in the washerwoman’s copper.” The borough council decided to ask the Provincial Government to assist in the erection of a bell-buoy by granting a sum of £3OO towards same, and was later informed that £2O had been placed on the estimates, and the council hoped to havfc some of the fund for this purpose. It was recommended that a pile beacon would be more advantageous than a floating buoy. It was not until a good deal of criticism of the council for delayed action appeared in the Mail that anything concrete was done.