SEA DEFENCES AGAIN HOLD

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26967, 17 February 1953, Page 9

SEA DEFENCES AGAIN HOLD

No Flooding By Spring Tides (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 16. Spring tides early this morning and -last night failed to breach Britain’s hastily repaired sea defences and unless sudden storms develop it is unlikely that the high tides in the next two days will cause any damage. The high tide last night caused little worry to troops and civilians who have laboured for a fortnight to close the gaps torn in the sea walls. People living in coastal areas were warned to be alert for flood warnings, but none were necessary. The weather is cold and calm. The Lord Mayor of London’s National Flood Distress Fund has reached £433,000.

The Admiralty has announced that the submarine Sirdar, sunk in the Sheerness dockyard during the flood, was refloated today. The frigate, Berkley Castle, which capsized in the adjoining dock, has been repaired, and is ready for refloating. The damage to the two ships is estimated at £1,000,000.

A correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian,” who toured the sea defences'in Lincolnshire, said one could almost believe the area had been given over to heavy engineering. “Crane booihg stick up wherever there have been serious breaches in the sea walls and smoke rises from pile-driving plants. Armies of civilian workmen and soldiers add another layer and then another to the sea walls, keeping them a precarious inch or two higher than the next tide.

It is as if |he sea had reawoken man’s primitive urge to beat the elements. Men have been working impossibly long hours —a man from the River Board told me he had not had his clothes off for six days and there must be many who could say the same —and they have succeeded far beyond rational expectations. Most civilian workmen are earning good money, but money is not the driving force; from the beginning the danger has been so evident that the job captured everyone’s imagination. If Britain’s economic dangers could be illustrated as graphically, they would te overcome tomorrow.”