DEVONPORT WHARF GANGWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 270, 14 November 1928, Page 6

DEVONPORT WHARF GANGWAY.

On two occasions lately the electricallyworked gangway at the new Devonport wharf has added to the thrills of Devonport passengers by smashing down unexpectedly upon the ferry boat decks. As the switch is on the gangway, and as the gangway cannot be raised until the switch is over, and as the skipper in the second case had just caused the gangway to lift prior to starting his boat for Auckland when the smashing-down occurred, it certainly appears that there is an undiscovered fault in the mechanism. Anyway, as a passenger daily on the Devonport ferry, I beg space to call attention to the serious results should this gangway fall on a moving crowded boat. H.M.

[We are informed that after the second incident alluded to the mechanism of the gangway was thoroughly examined and tested by the Harbour Board engineers and the Ferry Company officials. They found that th# machinery is so delicately adjusted that it will lift the gangway without the electricity being switched on, but it will not hold the gangway up. Hence if the master of a ferry fails to switch on the current before setting the machinery going the gangway lifts and thea falls again. This has happened only twice is three months, during which the gangway has been used about eighty times a day, but the Harbour Board engineers are trying to devisa some automatic and foolproof means of working the machinery. In the meantime the Ferry Company officials reiterate their request for passengers not to stand near the gangway, whether it is going up or down.—Ed.]