Success With Difficult Salvage Job At Timaru

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28529, 7 March 1958, Page 6

Success With Difficult Salvage Job At Timaru

(From Out Own Reporter)

TIMARU, March 6. Timaru fishermen and skindivers made history today when the fishing boat Stella was lifted out of the harbour by two mobile cranes—the last stage in a 12-week salvage operation. The Stella sank off Makikihi, about 16 miles down the coast from Timaru. on December 16, and after buying the salvage rights from his insurance company, the owner (Mr D. S. Lamberton) organised, with the Stella’s skipper, Jack Davies, a difficult salvage programme. Two skindivers (Messrs F. Yelden and J. Finlay) made repeated dives to the sunken boat in attempts to prepare her for safe towing back to the harbour but their efforts were continually thwarted by bad weather and bad luck. After three unsuccessful attempts to tow the Stella back with the help of the fishing boats Nella Seafarer and Bar-K-Lin, the men engaged on the salvage decided to make a last attempt on the next calm day. Wednesday proved to be ideal for their purpose and the divers set out at 2 p.m. in the Bar-K-Lin, skippered by Mr K. Marshall, to attach towing wires to the sunken craft. Later in the day they were followed to the scene of the wreck by the Nella skippered by Mr R Donald, and the Seafarer, skippered by Mr J Bissit The divers had completed their task when the two larger boats arrived and the towing cables were quickly attached to the winches Nella took the bow wire and Seafarer the stern wire. Her weight in the water was only about eight tons but the strain still taxed the towing boats almost to the limit. By 7 p.m last evening the Stella was supported between the two boats and had been raised from the 12 fathom bottom to within 26ft of the surface The forward mast could be seen in the water but an inspection by the skin-divers proved that it had been sheared from the deck and was floating in the wa+er above the stays. The little procession of boats got under way by 7.30 p.m. ancr

began the long slow trip back to Timaru. With the Bar-K-Lin in the lead with a line to the Nella, which in turn towed both the under-water Stella and the Seafarer at the rear, the cavalcade attained a speed of from two to two and a half knots.

The night was calm and the surface smooth. Spirits in the three boats were high until about 11 pm. when a heavy fog began to surround them. The fog became thicker until the red light at the end of the extension to the harbour could no longer be seen. As they could not find their way into the harbour a request was made by radio for assistance. Meanwhile the small row of fishingboats steamed vaguely around in the fog —comforted only by the unhappy moan of the Nella’s new fog-horn. Eventually the Miss Timaru skippered by Mr G. Bentley, jun, heard the fog-horn and came out to show the way. The three boats with their under-water burden tied up alongside the wharf about 3 a.m. after a seven and a half hour trip up the coast. This morning cranes lifted the Stella gradually out of the water as she was pumped out by a Timaru Fire Brigade pump. A long narrow gash in her hull was patched with canvas and she was wound up on to the slip this afternoon. Mr Lamberton said today that he thought the hull and the engine were in good condition and he expected to have the Stella hack in the water within a month. He □raised the work of all concerned in the salvage—“a combined fishermen’s effort”—and commented that the divers had done a narticularly remarkable job.