Explosion Lit Whole Horizon At Sea

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29872, 12 July 1962, Page 12

Explosion Lit Whole Horizon At Sea

(New Zealand) Press Association)

AUCKLAND, July 11

Men on duty on board the frigate Rotoiti saw the whole sky light up like daybreak a few seconds after the American high-altitude nuclear explosion on Monday evening. “A red glow started in the north-east and spread rapidly to the south-west,” said the gunnery officer, Lieutenant J. E. F. williams, today.

“The whole horizon was visible and if there had been another ship on the sea, even without navigation lights, we would have been able to see it.” The Rotoiti returned to Auckland today 30 days after leaving on a Pacific training cruise. She was about half way between Fiji and Auckland when the bomb went off.

The Rotoiti returned to port 20 hours earlier than originally expected. For 48 hours she had been steaming at full power to bring a sick seaman to port. Able Seaman C. Wheeler, of Auckland, was

suffering from appendicitis and as soon as the frigate berthed he was taken to the Devonport Naval Hospital where his condition tonight is satisfactory. The Rotoiti had difficulty in berthing at Devonport when she came alongside about 4.15 p.m. At the third attempt her stern grazed the bow of H.M.N.Z.S. Pukaki.

One of the plastic casings of a life-raft on the Rotoiti was damage and a stern railing bent. Paintwork on the Pukaki was scraped.

The Rotoiti will sail down to Mothuie Island on Monday to unload ammunition and v ill then undergo a three months’ refit at the dockyard.