IRIS RETURNS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 222, 19 September 1929, Page 9

IRIS RETURNS.

PACIFIC CABLE REPAIRED. FAULT NEAR NORFOLK. QUICK TRIP TO ISLAND. After a quick trip to Norfolk Island, where a fault in tlie Sydney-Suva cable was mended, the cable steamer Iris returned to Auckland this morning. It was only a minor fault which took th& Iris away, but the line was in such a condition that before .she could leave, with the safety of the direct, service ensured, she had to repair four breaks. Having left Auckland last Thursday, the Iris reached a spot about four miles north of Norfolk Island on Sunday and waited the Wliole day for calm weather and a chance to work. Several attempts were made to pick up the cable, but it was lying well beneath the bed of the ocean, under a good depth of mud. It was picked up at daybreak oh Monday at a point a few hundred yards nearer the island than had been expected, but broke when a few hundred yards had been taken in. Before a sound length was located (about two miles nearer the island) the cable broke again three times. Work was finished at midnight on Monday. There was no interruption to the service while the Iris was busy repairing the line, as messages between Sydney and Suva were relayed through Auckland. The last fault near this spot was two years ago. Bad weather was encountered on the outward trip, but coming back the Iris made good headway through a heavy swell, which lasted until North Cape was reached and the land north of Auckland gave shelter. It is 28 years ago to-day since Mr, D. C. Macdonald, chief officer of the Iris, went to sea, and among the men over him was Captain John Bollons, whose death at Wellington was reported on Tuesday. Captain Bollons was then third officer on the Hinemoa, and Mr. Macdonald had signed on as a cabin boy for one trip. lie was on holiday from school for three weoks, but the sea so fascinated him, that it was thre# years before he saw his homo agtiiu.