FIRST ICEBERG SIGHTED

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28161, 27 December 1956, Page 11

FIRST ICEBERG SIGHTED

Frigate’s Voyage South Aboard H.LI.N.Z.S. Hawea, lati- ’ tude 64deg South. [From DENIS WEDERELL, of “The J Press” reporting staff, with the ■ Royal New Zealand Navy frigates escorting the New Zealand Antarctic I expedition ship Endeavour.] December 26 The Hawea’s lookouts spotted their first ice this evening. It was a small berg showing two or three feet above the water. It was picked up first by radar when it was nearly six miles away and it was seen from the bridge when it was within 250 yards -of the port bow. Since two o’clock this morning, shortly before the sub-Antarctic sunrise the Hawea. her sister ship the Pukaki and the Eendeavour have been feeling their way steadily south through a clammy fog over a leaden sea. The sun set late last evening on the last of five days of blue skies and sparkling waters. At midnight it was so light that Lieutenant Christopher Parker-Jervis, the Hawea’s navigating officer, could shoot only one star, Sirius, the brighest in the heavens. x Yesterday’s noon sun sight is our latest verified position. Engine Trouble The Endeavour reported engine trouble early this morning and ordered that her escorts reduce speed while repairs were made Later, speed was increased but because of the fog, has been kept down to eight knots. The frigates, two and a half miles away on either side, have maintained station by radar since visual range is down to about 250 yards. Through the long twilight which passes for night the swells became longer and longer and the sea smoother until early this evening there was hardly a ripple to disturb the surface.