"MOURNFUL MARY"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 417, 29 December 1932, Page 7

"MOURNFUL MARY"

| ADRIFT AGAIN L WHISTL1NG BUOY GETS AWAY BUT IS RECAPTURED BY TUG MOANING AT THE BAR j "Mournful Mary,' the automatic f whistling huoy outside the Lyttelton Heads, that moans dismally as it rises and falls with each swell in. the sea, broke adrift early yesterday morning and «went wandering off for freer fields. The Lyttelton Harhour Board promptly sent the tug Lyttelton out and dragged "Mournful Mary" igno'miniously hack to port. Soon the buoy will he restored to its old position. ! "Mournful Mary" is one of the most servieeable buoys around the coast. It has a light on top that can he seen for nine miles. When the Godley Head light, whieh is 450 feet above the water level, is obscured by the mist or fog, it is very handy for the skipper of an entering vessel to have "Mournful Ma|ryf winking at (him through the opaque mist. : "Mournful Mary has an automatic whistle. It is not a pleasant thing to listen to, for it sounds like the moaning of some thing in very bad pain. But the moan has its purpose, for with its aid and that of the foghorn at Lyttelton; mariners can establish their position with near enough accuracy when other mean fial. But it's not much of a life • for "Mournful Mary," anchored there in the water, rising and falling with each swell and moaning to get free. She has her way of protesting. She works through her anchoring chain every once in a whild and. attempts to get clear away. She has tried that -sev•erali times before, but has been brought hack every time. But the signalman at the heads, one of these efficient fellows who never sleeps on the job and have no symp-a-thy with wandering buoys, quickly spotted that the buoy was adrift this morning, and "Mournful Mary" was towed into Lyttelton hy the tug, which captured her near the heads. Now the board will try to recover the moorings from, the bottom of the sea. It does not matter much from "Mournful Mary's" point of view whether it does or doesn't. Twice before the board has failed to get the chains up again after a hreak-away but on each occasion has simply fitted "Mournful Mary" with a new set and put her hack where she belongs to moan and moan and moan again till another inevitable cafble break gives her another brief period of liberty.