SUPPLY SHIP AGROUND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 895, 12 February 1930, Page 18

SUPPLY SHIP AGROUND

ELEANOR BOLING DELAYED IN RACE SOUTH

SOME HOURS ON SAND BANK Press Association DUNEDIN, Tuesday. The Byrd expedition supply ship, Eleanor Boling, went ashore on a sandbank near Port Chalmers this afternoon, when starting lier return voyage to the Antarctic. She grounded hard and fast about 100 yards from the western shore of the harbour but by the efforts of a tug and several motor-boats she was refloated at 10.30 p.m. The delay was unfortunate as the vessel’s southward voyage, and also the return journey through the Ross Sea. are viewed as a race against time. Time Is limited as the pack ice will probably begin to reform before the end of February, and the chances of the vessel getting through after leaving the Bay of Whales will depend on favourable circumstances.

The mishap occurred as the vessel was steaming down Victoria Channel. She apparently got out of the channel in attempting to pass between Goat Island and the mainland. The tide was falling and she went ashore. Little time had been wasted since the Eleanor Boling returned to Dunedin on Sunday afternoon from the South, and the crew and several waterside workers hacl been kept busy placing supplies on board. The ship is loaded to her plimsol mark. In addition to about 600 tons of bunker coal she is carrying food to last 100 men for a year, and also pontoons for the airplanes being used by Sir Hubert Wilkins in his Antarctic exploration work. A number of dog boxes are also on board. There is a possibility that the ice may close in before the Eleanor Boling can leave the ice barrier, and it is for this reason she is carrying such a large supply of provisions and coal. Should the venture have that good fortune which attended it on the first long voyage to the Barrier, in December, 1928, the vessel may be expected to return to Dunedin about the first week in March. Under favourable conditions she should reach the Bay of Whales in 12 days’ steaming.