MISSION STEAMER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 300, 30 September 1938, Page 6

MISSION STEAMER.

DEPARTURE FOR ISLANDS. ECHO-SOUNDING EQUIPMENT. (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, September 29. After spending a month at Auckland, the Melanesian Mission ship Southern Cross will leave port at noon to-morrow for Vila, in the New Hebrides. In addition to the Bishop of Melanesia, the Rt. Rev W. H. Baddeley, and the usual staff and crew, there will be three young men on board who have volunteered for service with the mission. They are Mr W. A. Holloway, an Englishman who has lived, in New Zealand for some years, and Messrs D. H. Baker and IP. B. Armitage, who are botn iNew Zealanders. Mr Armitage lias been responsible while the Southern Cross has been at Auckland, for the installation or electric-echo-sounding equipment, tlie gift of an anonymous English donor. The device, which will be particularly valuable when the vessel is negotiating the badly-charted _ stretches of water among some of the islands which she visits, provides a continuous reading of depths of water through which the ship passes. It was used for the first time on Wednesday when the Southern Cross adjusted her compass at the compass dolphin, and showed that it is fully efficient. The echo-sounding gear will not. only be used in the islands as a protection foir the ship, but also as an aid to other mariners. The Southern Ci •oss will now be able to make exact recordings of the various areas which are at present poorly-charted, and the information she obtains will bo used by the authorities in the preparation of new charts. Mr Armitage- 1 s export knowledge of the device is regarded on board as the cause for considerable gratification. In addition to undergoing Lloyd’s survey, being fumigated, and having a number of details attended to while she has been in port, the 'Southern Cross lias taken in a full stock of supplies.